The Shadow War
by R Omega
Summary: Five years after the end of the Jedi Civil War, the Jedi have been all but exterminated. Now their greatest hope comes from their greatest fear, a Jedi exiled from the order almost a decade ago. Thus begins the Shadow War.
1. Prologue: A planet's death

I don't own Star Wars. Which is too bad really; because if I did, Episodes I & II wouldn't have happened.

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Prologue- A planet's death

It was pure chaos. The black void was split by flashes of red and green as sleek fighters performed their elegant dance of death and destruction. Basilisk war droids, the very symbol of Mandalorian power and ferocity, streaked passed the Republic fighters, plowing a path of carnage and destruction behind them before erupting into a short lived ball of fire as they died. Capital ships faced off on opposing sides firing at each other across the battle zone.

The Republic had larger numbers, but the Mandalorians were a people who thrived on war, and they had become quite good at it. For every Mandalorian that perished they took with them ten Republic soldiers into oblivion. Even if the Republic was victorious today, it would be feeling the effects of this war for generations.

But it was too late to turn back now, not that either side would. One way or another every soldier fighting knew that the fate of the Galaxy was to be decided in this battle.

Arielynn Tinn watched the battle from the bridge of her flagship, the _Arbalest_. She was of moderate height with ash-blond hair that had been placed into a thick braid running down her back. Dressed insimple beige robes she looked somewhat out of place on the bridge of a warship. Her grey eyes were focused on a large holographic display of the entire battle zone stood. Littered throughout the three-dimensional display were colored indicators representing the individual ships of the opposing forces. Many times a second one of the small dots representing individual fighters would blink off as another pilot paid the ultimate sacrifice for the cause.

She felt each of their deaths through the Force, as they cried out in fear and rage before being silenced forever. Shaking away the feelings, Arielynn turned to an orderly who stood nearby. She had a war to fight and it wouldn't do for a general to get emotional over the death of a single soldier.

"Send a message to the captains of the _Fate's Triumph_ and the _Jedi's Blade_. Tell them to tighten up their formations, a Gamorrean could outflank them. And warn the _Endar Spire_ that we expect reinforcements to come from that sector." The orderly snapped off a salute and ran to fulfill her orders.

Turning to the viewport, she watched as a Mandalorian Battle Cruiser splintered into pieces as half a dozen Republic _Dreadnaught_-class ships concentrated their fire upon it. The victory was short-lived however; as two of the Dreadnaughts were destroyed as a monolithic Mandalorian vessel avenged the death of its comrade. Arielynn didn't need to check the display to place a name on the Mandalorian ship. It was the _Mandalorian Honor_, the flagship of the entire Mandalorian navy and the personal vessel of Mandalore himself.

She was about to order the _Arbalest_ to reinforce the Dreadnaughts when the ship's captain, a male human by the name of Conners, walked up to her and saluted. "General Tinn, Vice-Admiral Malak has requested communication with you."

"Is he here?" she asked, surprised.

"No Ma'am. He is on channel four."

Arielynn suddenly felt a disturbing sense of foreboding through the Force. Malak didn't usually communicate over Holovid during battles unless it was extremely important. The Jedi swordsman had a very unusual outlook on technology and preferred to meet in person whenever possible. Apparently only an enclosed room, behind meter-thick reinforced durasteel walls with seven kinds of jamming was safe enough for him.

"Thank you, Captain. Put him through." The Jedi-general said turning to the hologram projector. Soon she was looking at the familiar face of the second-in-command of the entire Republic Navy.

He was a bald man with four large tattoos on his head. He had a straight nose and a powerfully built jaw. Though the hologram didn't show color Arielynn could imagine his steely-blue eyes as they stared at her. Malak was a man who exhibited confidence and strength.

"Hello Malak, I take it that this is important."

The image nodded grimly. Arielynn noticed that he looked tired, and he sported a gash along his left cheekbone that hadn't been there last time she had seen him. "I'm afraid so, General Tinn. I've just come back from Malachor V."

Arielynn knew where this was going. "Enjoying a little new scenery? And drop the formality, you know I hate it."

Malak smirked slightly. "I wish, friend." His smile fade, "I have just come back from the mission to place the Mass-Shadow Generator. It was successful. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what that means."

Arielynn shook her head sadly. "Of course not. After all, I'm the one who pushed the idea to Revan in the first place."

Malak's hologram nodded, "And that's why Revan wants you to give the order to activate it. It's only fair right?"

"Fair isn't quite the word I would use," Arielynn sighed.

Malak's eyes softened and showed concern, "Are you all right? I could give the order for you, if you'd like."

Arielynn shook her head and wave the suggestion away. "No. It's my responsibility. I'll do it." She summoned her orderly over, "Summon technician Bao-Dur." The orderly snapped a salute and ran off.

Turning back to the Holovid screen she saluted her superior officer, "Tell Grand Admiral Revan to order the Republic Navy to fall back, this is going to make one huge mess."

Malak nodded, "I'll relay the message." He paused momentarily, checking for eavesdroppers on his end. "She trusts your judgment, Lynn," he said, using the nickname he had given her years ago.

Arielynn sighed. "I know, Mal. Tell you what, when this is all over you two treat me to all I can drink and I'll call it even," she said with a grin.

Malak laughed, "It's a deal. I need to go move my fleet away from the blast zone; you make sure you don't get caught up in the mess."

She grinned, almost feline like. "Why Malak, is that concern I detect in your voice?"

It was all she could do not to laugh at the flabbergasted look on her friend's face. She was sure that if the holo-projector showed color his face would be bright red.

"See you when this is all over, Mal. May the Force be with you." She saluted one last time which he returned, still somewhat dazed. Then the hologram fazed out of existence and she was left alone with her thoughts again.

The Jedi-general turned to look out the viewport again. From the looks of it, the Republic had somehow managed to force the _Mandalorian Honor_ to fall back. Now the two forces were locked into some kind of nightmarish stalemate. Neither side ever managed to gain an advantage over the other and the death toll just climbed higher and higher.

It continued on like that for almost half a standard hour. Then she saw it. The Republic's ranks began to fall back, away from the planet with the largest Republic War Cruisers staying to act as rear guards. Stretching out her senses Arielynn could feel the rage and indignation coming from the Mandalorian forces. No doubt they thought that the Republic was running away. She laughed mirthlessly, they had no idea what was in store for them.

"General. We have retrieved technician Bao-Dur as requested. We have also received orders to fall back with the rest of the Navy, shall we comply?" Captain Conners asked as he saluted.

Arielynn nodded, "Stay away from the Mandalorians, but stay within signal range of the planet."

"Yes Ma'am." The Captain saluted and walked away leaving her alone with the technician.

Bao-Dur was a Zabrak, from the world of Iridonia, and he bore the same horns and facial tattoos as the rest of his kind. He wasn't much older than her but Arielynn knew that he was very intelligent and had an incredible knack for computers and machinery. He had been the one to come up with the plans for the Mass-Shadow Generator.

"Well Bao-Dur," she addressed the mechanic. "It seems the only way this war will end is if we kill a planet."

"Yes, General." He replied. Despite his somewhat imposing appearance the mechanic was very soft-spoken and mellow, although she didn't know if that was a racial trait or not. She hadn't met enough Zabrak to know.

"We'll wait for the fleet to move further and then activate the Generator. I presume you have the activation codes," she inquired to the mechanic.

He chuckled softly. "Right up here, General." He tapped his temple with a gloved finger on his left hand. "It's the only place I know I won't lose them."

Arielynn nodded and turned back to the tactical display. The Mandalorians were now attempting to pursue the retreating Republic fleet but were being held back by two Republic _Defender_-class ships, the _Mandalorian Bane_ and the _Behemoth_. Arielynn watched as these two ships were set upon by the first of the pursuing Mandalorians. The fighting was fierce and she almost cried out as dozens of lives were snuffed out in seconds. Those two ships were among the most powerful ships in the Republic Navy but she knew that even they wouldn't stand up to the entire Mandalorian Armada for long.

"General, the Republic fleet is out of the danger zone," the communications officer called out.

"Not all of it," the Jedi-general muttered. "Open up channels to the _Bane_ and the _Behemoth_."

It wasn't long until she found herself looking at the holographic projections of the captains of the two vessels. Captain Raylar Krish'lya of the _Mandalorian Bane_ was an elderly Bothan who despite his respectable age, his fur had lost its brown color long ago, was still very much a strong and competent leader. Captain Allan Saix of the _Behemoth_ was human and just over thirty standard years old. Both captains saluted her respectively, which she returned.

"Gentlemen, you are to take your ships and fall back immediately."

Saix was first to answer, "I'm sorry General Tinn, but I cannot do that. I cannot risk allowing the Mandalorians to escape the blast zone."

"I agree," Captain Krish'lya's gravely voice added, "If we allow them past then they'll just continue their brutal rape of the Republic. It would bring great shame to clan Ayla if I was to allow them to escape just so I could protect myself. The Mandalorians must be stopped here."

"Even if it means the certain deaths of you and all your crew?" she questioned. "Enough men have died today; don't add to that number needlessly."

"I hardly consider ending this war needless, General." Captain Krish'lya stated frowning sternly. "No one aboard the _Bane_ is here against their will. We have resigned ourselves to our fates."

"Same here." Captain Saix interjected. "We will not abandon our duty to the Republic."

Arielynn was getting frustrated. "I understand your feeling, but you don't understand. There won't be enough of you and your ships left to fill a storage canister, it's not worth it. I'm ordering you to fall back immediately."

Krish'lya's furry eyebrows furrowed and his facial fur rippled, a sure sign that the Bothan was annoyed. "With all due respect, General, I'm afraid I must re-" the image of the captain flashed brightly than vanished.

"Captain! Captain Krish'lya, do you copy!" Arielynn screamed into the comm. But it stayed silent. She turned to the communications officer, "Status report! What happened to that channel?"

Bao-Dur's perpetually calm voice cut through her anxiety. "General, just look out the viewport."

The Jedi-general did so and saw her fears verified. Where the _Mandalorian Bane_ had once been were several large flaming chunks of metal. The Mandalorians had destroyed it.

Turning back to the projection Arielynn addressed Saix. "Captain, please get away. Do you really want your son to grow up fatherless? Your death will not bring the Republic any joy."

The captain grimly set his jaw, "I'm afraid it's too late for us, General. Please do what you need to before it's too late." And with that, Captain Saix ended the transmission. Arielynn punched the terminal angrily, bringing up a hand to hide her face.

"General?" Bao-Dur asked timidly, as if afraid to interrupt her in her anger, "What are your orders?"

Arielynn glanced out the viewport and watched as the _Behemoth_ bravely tried to hold back the Mandalorian lines. But there was only so much one ship could do and Mandalorians were already beginning to slip past and head towards the rest of the Republic's fleet. She felt the feelings of the soldiers fighting in the battle and she thought back to all the soldiers who had already died. She would not let their deaths be for nothing. Going against everything her Jedi training had taught her she turned to the mechanic and nodded. "Do it." She said grimly. "Activate the Mass-Shadow Generator, Bao-Dur."

The mechanic snapped a salute and punched something into the communications terminal. Arielynn turned and watch out the viewport and tried to mentally steel herself against what was about to happen."

The fires raked across the _Behemoth_'s hull as the Mandalorians abandoned it dead in space and moved past it towards the remainder of the Republic fleet, the _Mandalorian Honor_ taking the lead. For a few painstaking moments nothing happened and Arielynn feared that it hadn't worked and the Mandalorians would reach the fleet. But then she felt something from the planet.

She recognized the feelings of something alive as it struggled against its inevitable death; she had felt that same feeling from every soldier as he died. But this was on an infinitely larger scale. The entire planet was screaming through the Force, like the flame that blazes wildly before being snuffed out.

In the space of three seconds the entire galaxy fell apart around her. First the planet groaned as the Mass-Shadow Generator warped the already strange gravity anomalies and caused the planet to rip itself apart from the core, spraying rock and fire outwards. Many Mandalorians were destroyed this way, as their ships and Basilisks were shredded by the very planet they considered sacred. But even that destruction was nothing compared to what would happen next.

As all the life on the planet died at once it sent a massive shock-wave through the Force. Combined with the outburst of gravitational energy, entire starships were crushed to the size of a holocron and tossed aside as the wave crashed outward from the planet. Arielynn saw some of the Mandalorians escape into hyperspace before the _Arbalest_ felt the effects of the destruction.

Fortunately they were far away enough as to avoid outright obliteration but as the shockwave slammed into the ship it shook as if it had been rammed by a massive space slug. Arielynn almost lost her balance and had to grasp onto the tactical display projector to keep from falling.

But the physical effects were nothing compared to the mental. Somewhere in the back of her mind Arielynn heard dozens of crewmates scream out in pain, despite the fact that they were not Force-sensitive as all the anguish and rage of the lives lost cried out in their heads. Behind her, Bao-Dur fell to his knees clutching his head screaming in pain before a violent jerk sent him sprawling across the deck. Arielynn was so overcome with despair and pain that it was all she could do to stay conscious.

The wave was so powerful that it shattered her mental defenses like they were nothing and all the pain, rage, sorrow and fear of billions of lost lives poured into her mind. As she heard the screams of millions and millions of men and women and countless more insentient life forms echo throughout her mind she fell to her knees, tears falling freely and clutched at her head.

"Stop it!" she cried. But the screams continued as if they hadn't heard her. She could no longer see out of her eyes and it was becoming hard to breathe. She tried to gasp for air but it was useless. Her lungs filled with some strange sort of thickness and her entire body felt as if it was being compressed. The Force raked through her brain as the world around her began to deteriorate around her. Struggling for air she could feel her body begin to give way; her darkened eyes were pierced by a sparkling white light. Maybe the pain would stop if she gave in; becoming one with the Force didn't seem so bad.

_Awaken._

As the world collapsed around her, Arielynn let out a final, primal scream of despair and released all the pent up Force energy she contained within herself.

The glass of the kolto tank shattered outwards.

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I'd like to thank everyone who has read this far. I can assure you that I'm going to do my best to ensure that this story is worthy of the Star Wars Legacy. Reviews are always appreciated and so is criticism. I can only improve if I'm told what I'm lacking. Chapter 1 should be up soon. 


	2. A Jedi Reborn

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. I also don't have a job or any money, so don't sue me. You won't get much.

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Chapter 1: A Jedi Reborn

She was cold. That was the first thing Arielynn noticed as she slowly regained consciousness.She was cold and she was covered in some kind of thick liquid. Forcing open her thick eyelids she moaned groggily as the room slowing came into focus. Bringing up a hand to rub the tiredness out of her eyes she realized too late her mistake. Her right eye screamed in protest as the liquid that she was covered in was rubbed into it. Cursing unintelligently she tried to ignore the stinging and use the other eye to scan the room.

As the room faded into existence she realized that she was lying face down on the floor. Turning her head to one side she could see several large tanks along a wall. Inside of them were some floating man-sized blurs. Kolto tanks, she realized. That explained the smell. She was probably in some kind of medical facility somewhere. She pushed herself up to a sitting position so that she could get a better look at her surroundings.

She was definitely in a medical facility; but she had no idea where and that bothered her. The last thing she remembered was being aboard a Republic ship, the _Harbinger,_ but this didn't look like the medical facility on the ship. Looking around she noticed that all the tanks were full; only a military complex used kolto that regularly, and that was usually after a large battle. One of the tanks looked like it a frag grenade had been set off inside of it and judging by the other tanks, it had been the tank she had been in.

Rising shakily to her feet she slowly walked over to the broken tank, careful not to step on the broken shards of the transparasteel that littered the ground. The tank had completely shattered. Kolto tanks were not easy to break, they were made from reinforced transparasteel and they had been known to withstand thermal detonators at close range. _'The Force could do that,'_ she thought, almost unconsciously. That surprised her. She hadn't felt the Force in almost a decade. Not since Malachor V.

Sighing to herself, Arielynn turned towards the only door in the in the room. Thinking about the past bothered the ex-Jedi and she had made a habit of suppressing those memories. Walking around the shards of broken transparasteel, Arielynn left the tank behind.

Out in the hallway, she saw that she was definitely not on the _Harbinger_ anymore. The hallways were far too wide and tall to be to belong to a ship of the _Harbinger_'s class and there was a frightening lack of guards or security turrets. Exiting the medical bay she took noticed of the three doors that branched off. If the facility followed general standards the two closest were the medical offices and the morgue. The last thing Arielynn felt like doing was look at dead people so she bypassed the morgue and entered the door leading to the offices. Hopefully someone would be there and could tell her where she was.

Unfortunately, upon entering the room the she found it as empty as the hallway behind her. Frowning at the lack of organization in the medical staff Arielynn walked up to a terminal nearby, maybe she could find some answers that way.

As it turned out, there wasn't much to be learned from the medical logs. She did discover that she was on a mining facility in the Peragus system and that there had been a recent series of freak injuries and accidents. That was good, there's nothing quite like being on a giant bomb waiting to go off to get the blood pumping. Apparently she had drifted here aboard a freighter called the _Ebon Hawk_, although she had no idea how she could have gotten aboard that ship.

According to the dates of the logs she had arrived at Peragus just over 3 standard days ago as the only survivor aboard the _Hawk_. There had also been two droids but she couldn't recall ever seeing any droids on the _Harbinger_. Of course she had mostly just stayed in her room on the ship so it was very possible she just hadn't noticed them.

Somehow, the miners had drawn the conclusion that she was a Jedi, something to do with her recovery rate. Arielynn frowned at that, she did manage to keep herself in good physical condition, a habit she picked up during her training, but the Force had long abandoned her. She was just lucky.

The last thing of notice was that the entire facility had entered emergency lockdown one day ago; that explained the lack of personnel. The medical sector seemed to be functioning fine; it had power at least so the threat seemed to have passed. Why then had the miners not returned to their jobs? Unless they had somehow been cut off from this wing. According to the terminal the door leading to the rest of the complex was locked down tight with no way to manually open it from the inside. She would need to find some sort of cutting tool.

"Wish I still had my lightsaber," the ex-Jedi muttered. Surprised at herself Arielynn shook her head. That was twice now. Something was dragging those long buried memories back to the surface and she didn't like it.

Arielynn looked around the room to see if there was anything she could use to cut through the door. Unfortunately there wasn't. Turning back to the computer terminal she tried to find a list of recent patients. Medical facilities usually kept personal belongings nearby, and if a mechanic had been inducted he may have had a plasma torch or a fusioncutter.

Looking through the list she was shocked to see that all the recent miners emitted for treatment had died. The life sign monitoring equipment for the kolto tanks showed flat lines for every one. Arielynn wondered just what was going on; no accident that left the station intact could be this serious.

Looking through the medical data she noticed that all of the patients had received the same dosage of sedatives, including her. Her eyes widened in shock, the amount administered was enough to kill a Wookie. It was a miracle her heart hadn't exploded under the strain. The dosage had been manually entered as well. Either someone had royally messed up their orders, or they had been deliberately trying to kill the patients.

She checked through the list and saw that all the bodies in the tanks belonged to miners and they wouldn't have anything to help her. But further down the list she read: 'Deacon Bluns: Droid Maintenance'. Apparently Deacon had been emitted two days prior with sever burns. Reading through the medical files she learned that he had died before they could treat him and had been placed in the morgue until a transport could take his body back to his homeworld of Corellia. With no other visible options Arielynn keyed in the command to open the morgue and braced herself for the worst.

Surprisingly, the morgue was relatively vacant. Aside from the body of Deacon Bluns the only other occupant was an old woman. She was laid out on a table near the door and was covered by a sheet so that only her face was visible. She had clearly been very old at time of death, judging from the deep creases that marked her face and the pure white hair that lay limply near her head. Arielynn briefly wondered what such an old woman would be doing in a dangerous mining facility but then remembered that the medical logs had mentioned something about another body aboard the _Ebon Hawk_.

Moving past the woman Arielynn approached the other body lying at the far end of the room. Deacon Bluns had been covered up so that only his feet were shown, indication that his injuries were probably very unsettling. Stifling down the morbid curiosity to look at his face, she had seen enough horrors in the war; Arielynn began to look through the container that had been placed beneath his table.

It seemed that the burns had destroyed his clothes as she found none in the box. What she did find however was exactly what she had been looking for. Reaching past personal trinkets and belongings the ex-Jedi withdrew a small plasma torch designed for cutting through wall panels and droid casings. It wasn't a highly concentrated beam of energy but it would certainly get the job done.

Smiling she stood up, "Thank you."

"Find what you are looking for amongst the dead?"

Arielynn jumped at the voice, involuntarily letting out a shriek. Wheeling around, she held up the plasma torch, hoping to use it as a weapon if required. She stopped dead when she saw who had spoken.

The woman who had been dead on the table had somehow come back to life and stood in front of her. She wore a simple white medical gown and her straggly hair hung down past her shoulders. Arielynn noticed with a start that the woman's eyes had a milky white consistency; she was blind. The old woman looked too frail to be standing but there was something in her stance that reminded Arielynn of something she had long forgotten. There was definitely more to this woman than met the eye.

"I thought you were dead," Arielynn managed to say. She relaxed a little bit but didn't lower her guard.

"Close to death, yes. Perhaps closer than I'd like," the old woman answered, her raspy voice speaking in such a way that suggested that she knew more than expected. The woman scrunched her nose, "You have the smell of the kolto about you. How do you feel?" she asked, suddenly sounding concerned.

"I'll be fine with time. Who are you?"

"I am Kreia," the woman answered. "And I am your rescuer, as you are mine."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Arielynn asked, growing confused at the woman's cryptic way of speaking.

"Do you remember what happened?" she responded.

Arielynn mentally noted the old woman's evasion but answered the question. "Last thing I remember, I was aboard a Republic ship, the _Harbinger_. How did I get here?"

"Your ship was attacked." Kreia responded. "You were the only survivor, a result of your Jedi training no doubt."

That set off alarms within Arielynn's mind. During her entire exile along the Outer Rim she hadn't told a single soul about her past. In fact she had taken great pains to deny and forget that part of her life. For eight years she had had lived out her new life hopping from planet to planet along the Rim. Then suddenly she receives a message from an admiral of the Republic telling her to return to Coruscant, boards a Republic _Capital_-class warship sent to find her, and then winds up inside a deserted mining colony talking to a corpse about her past. It seemed almost too strange to believe.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken. I'm no Jedi," she replied. It wasn't really a lie; she wasn't a Jedi – anymore.

"Your stance, how you hold yourself and perceive the world around you, the way you move tells me that you are a Jedi." Arielynn frowned. How could a blind woman recognize a stance? This woman, whoever she was, knew more than most about the Jedi. That kind of knowledge could be dangerous if held in the wrong hands.

"Your walk is heavy," Kreia continued. "You carry something that weighs you down."

She was awfully perceptive for a blind woman. The last thing Arielynn wanted to do was talk about her lovely history with the Jedi to an old hag in a morgue, so she tried to steer the conversation away from herself. "Let's deal with the now. What is this place?"

"I do not know." Kreia shrugged, as if indifferent to her current situation. "A survey of the surroundings may reveal the answers you seek. The ship we arrived in must still be in this place. We should recover it and leave."

The ex-Jedi arched an eyebrow. "In a hurry are we?"

"We were attacked once, and I fear the attackers will not give up the hunt so easily. Without transportation, weapons, and information, they will find us easy prey indeed," Kreia replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Arielynn was starting to get annoyed at the old woman's cryptic words but it was against her principals to abandon someone behind. She may not be a Jedi anymore but that didn't mean she was going to turn her back on those in need. Sighing slightly the she nodded, "Very well. There should be someone left alive somewhere on this station."

"You may wish to extend your search to some clothes." The old woman remarked, smirking slightly. "If only for proper first impressions."

It was only then did Arielynn realize just what a sorry state she was in. Looking down, she felt her face burn as she saw that she was dressed only in a tight one-piece undergarment that left very little to the imagination. Reaching up, she found that her hair had either fallen or been taken out of the braids she usually kept it in, strands of ash-blond hair clumped together and stuck to her head at random spots. She was still covered in slowly drying kolto and someone had taken her shoes. Altogether she imagined she looked like a mess.

Trying to hide her embarrassment she looked back to Kreia, "Are you well enough to travel?"

The old woman shook her head. "I am not foolish enough to offer my aid. I am not so young as to leap from death's door as quickly as you."

Arielynn snickered in spite of herself. "Very well. I'll return soon to make sure you're all right."

Kreia nodded, suddenly becoming very pensive. Arielynn got the unsettling feeling that the woman was judging her every word and that she didn't approve. "I will leave the exploration to you," the old woman stated. "I will remain here and attempt to center myself." She then turned and began to look through the box beneath the table she had laid on, no doubt hoping for some proper clothes. Arielynn sighed and left the old woman to her own devices.

Out in the hallway the blast door held up well but she was eventually able to cut through the magnetic locks keeping it firmly closed. The door slid open with relatively little difficulty after that. Pushing it open the ex-Jedi found herself in another hallway. The new hallway was just as empty as the previous one.

She had to cut her way through three more sets of blast doors before finally coming across a door marked 'Emergency Exit' printed in multiple languages; she recognized the Basic, Twi'lek, and Sullustian alphabets.

It was strange that the door was locked shut; during an emergency lockdown this door should have opened to provide the evacuees a faster route to safety. Arielynn made a mental note to look for an access terminal and come back.

_The door is locked. Strange, in my visions it was open._

Fortunately for her pride, Arielynn managed to keep from jumping this time. Turning around to give the old hag hell for sneaking up on her again, she stopped when she saw that she was alone in the hallway.

"The hell? Kreia?" the ex-Jedi called out, but only silence answered. She could have sworn that she had heard Kreia's voice. Praying that she was still just disoriented from the kolto and not going crazy Arielynn continued past the emergency exit and pushed deeper into the complex.

It wasn't long until she found her way to a room filled with surveillance equipment and monitors. A large desk sat in the middle of the room and a line of equipment lockers was placed in the corner. Scanning the room her eyes fell on an unmoving droid sitting in the corner. Mining facilities like Peragus had dozens of such droids and this one seemed to be shut down so she moved past it towards the desk. Maybe she could access the command network and open the emergency door.

She stopped dead as her foot pressed down onto something squishy and decidedly non-metallic. Looking down she had to fight back the urge to vomit, her bare foot had stepped on someone's severed arm. Pulling back her foot like it had been burned the ex-Jedi looked around for the rest of the body.

She found the miner lying face up on the other side of the desk. Arielynn had seen a lot of horrible things during the Mandalorian Wars and she knew a corpse when she saw one. The poor man looked like he had been burned to death, but on kneeling down for a closer inspection she that the markings weren't right for a fire. The burn wounds were too small and concentrated for that. They weren't from blasters or grenades either, they weren't nearly bad enough. It almost looked like someone had killed him by slowly burning away his flesh using a low-powered plasma torch over a long time, it must have been so painful that eventually his heart just couldn't take it anymore and stopped working. His face was contorted into a mask of pain and fear, Arielynn could scarcely imagine how it felt to be slowly burned to death piece by piece.

There was a sound of metal scraping metal and Arielynn's brain flared danger. Throwing herself to the side, she barely avoided being crushed as a large metal arm slammed down where she had been kneeling seconds before. It seemed that the droid she had assumed broken was very much fully functional.

It was shaped something like a scorpion without the arcing tail; it walked on four jointed legs and had two large appendages that spread out in front of it like claws. Along its back were several small containment devices that it probably used to store the fuel it mined. The droid regarded her through red optical sensors, as if registering the new data it had been presented.

The droid brought one of its arms up and pointed it towards the former Jedi. A small spot on the 'claw' glowed red briefly then shot out a thin laser beam towards her. Arielynn didn't have time to dodge it, but fortunately the shot didn't even come close to hitting her, searing the wall three feet to her left. As aggressive as the droid was, it was equally as bad a shot.

It didn't take a genius to figure out how the miner had been killed, this droid would be more than capable of killing an unarmed, untrained miner at close range and Arielynn doubted it was the only one of its kind. Anger flared through her as she thought about the pain that this droid had caused and now it wanted to make her the next casualty. She be damned if she'd let that happen, clutching the plasma torch, the only weapon she had, she ran forward hoping that the droid hadn't been programmed with combat maneuvers.

The droid was unfazed and fired at her twice more but neither shot proved any more accurate than the first. As she activated the plasma torch and drove it deep into the mining droid's head the mechanical being tried vainly to back peddle away from her. But in the end it was only a mining droid and not suited for combat; there was nothing it could do. The droid sparked and sputtered a few times before falling to the ground dead, this time for good.

Arielynn made a note on the droid's poor combat skills, there were probably going to be more, and withdrew her makeshift weapon from the machine's smoking head. Double checking the room to ensure there were no more Arielynn activated the computer on the desk, hoping to learn just what the hell was going on.

The room turned out to be the main office for the security officer. Skipping through the records on policy, regulations, and personnel background checks, the security officer seemed to have had a big problem with a miner named Coorta; she managed to find the logs made within the last few days. Apparently the problems had begun shortly after her arrival. Some of the miners had wanted to sell the Jedi to the Exchange, an infamous intergalactic crime syndicate. It seemed like the Exchange had been paying big for Jedi, dead or alive. That explained the sedatives.

The security officer had suspected that someone who had disagreed with the decision not to hand her over had begun sabotaging the droids to clear a path off the facility.

Arielynn felt a sharp pang of guilt. Because of her at least seven people had already lost their lives so that some greedy miner could make a few credits. Seems even eight years after turning her back on it; the Jedi in her past was still able to cause the deaths of innocent people.

The only other thing of note in the security logs was a recording that spoke of how the holding cell had been rigged up so that it could only be opened if all the droids on the level were disabled. It was meant to prevent the droids from springing whoever had reprogrammed them out of his cell once they caught him. Upon checking the surveillance footage, Arielynn saw that someone had been placed inside one of the cells. It seemed that they had managed to catch the perpetrator before the entire facility went into lockdown.

Finding nothing else of worth in the records, Arielynn logged out of the terminal and walked over to the security lockers. If she was lucky they might contain some clothes or a weapon. Unfortunately she wasn't very lucky, at least in the major sense. She did manage to find a pair of boots at the bottom of one of the lockers, they were too big and had been made for a man but she quickly put them on regardless, she didn't want to step on any more unpleasant surprises. Finding nothing she could use as a weapon Arielynn resigned herself to beating back rogue droids with a plasma torch.

With nothing else to do, the ex-Jedi left the room. Maybe she could do something from the main command terminal. Entering into another hallway she made a habit of stopping at every door and listening for movement from the other side before cutting through the locks. She was not about to let herself be ambushed by droids again. She did encounter a few more of the rogue machines but fortunately they were usually alone and easily dispatched.

As she walked through the hallways she couldn't help but reflect on how good it felt to fight again, even if it was just against weak mining droids. While she had still been in the Jedi Order she had been trained a Guardian, those Jedi who sought to enhance their connection to the Force through combat and physical training. Arielynn had always enjoyed the thrill of the fight, the challenge to constantly push oneself to the limit, and then surpass it. Then the Mandalorian Wars happened and she had gotten more fight than she cared to think about.

Arielynn had always thought negatively on the Jedi Masters who had remained safely in their enclaves as the people they had sworn to serve and protect burned as the Mandalorian war machine plowed through the Outer Rim. All those years ago she had truly believed that she had made the correct choice in following Revan and Malak in their crusade against the threat, she still did. At the time she had viewed the Council as cowards but now as she looked back, slightly wiser she understood why they had pleaded for patience, time to evaluate the threat. And in a perfect Galaxy she would have gladly agreed with them, but not while entire worlds burned and the Mandalorians slaughtered her people by the billions. Arielynn had made her choice, and she would defend it to the grave.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she came to another door, this one labeled 'Communications Center'. Absently she pushed the panel to open the door, and cursed herself for her carelessness as almost a dozen droids in the room beyond turned to register the newcomer.

They apparently came to the conclusion that she was a threat they all raised their mining lasers as a cohesive unit and opened fire. Arielynn quickly threw herself to the side, behind the door frame. Even with their horrible aim she couldn't rely on luck when faced with that many. Streams of red lasers flashed past her. Raking her brain for options she heard the sounds of the droids scrambling towards the door to try and pursue their target.

As the first droid began to pass through the doorway, Arielynn slammed her hand onto the access panel. The droid let out a high pitched whine as the heavy doors slammed shut, cutting the mining droid in two. The other droids began banging on the other side of the door in an effort to breach it and get at their prey.

Staring down at the dismembered droid the ex-Jedi was struck by inspiration. As a girl she had always enjoyed tinkering with the many droids at the academy of Dantooine, a fact that caused some of the senior mechanics a great deal of irritation. Her Jedi training had superseded the development of those skills at the time, but during the long years of her exile she had needed a means of earning money. She wouldn't rate her skills as highly as some but she was competent.

Kneeling down and quickly making some impromptu adjustments to the droid's circuitry Arielynn began to sweat as the sounds of the droids on the other side of the door grew silent and the distinct sound of a high-powered welding tool was heard. It wouldn't be long until they were through. Hastening her work, the ex-Jedi laughed triumphantly when she finished. Quickly rising to her feet she slammed the access panel to open the door and bolted back down the hallway away from the droids.

Their path cleared, the mining droids wasted no time in pursuing their quarry down the hallway. But the first droid had barely cleared the doorframe when the severed upper body of the fallen droid overloaded and sprayed electrical energy throughout the ranks of its comrades now swarming into the hallway. Three droids immediately overloaded and shut down as their emergency self-preservation systems kicked in. Another spasmed and triggered its mining lasers, burning through the legs of another. The odds had just been evened her favored by almost a half.

Surveying her handiwork, the former Jedi Knight gripped her plasma torch tightly and letting old combat training take over, threw herself back towards the metal mob. Reaching the mechanical beasts in seconds she quickly thrust forward, piercing the closest droid's optical sensors. The droid went berserk and began firing its lasers wildly, doing more damage to its own kind than anything. Finishing the droid with another thrust into the central motivator, Arielynn twisted to the side to avoid a blow from another droid. Jabbing downwards, she pierced through the top of said droid's outer casing. The droid tried valiantly to free itself but she held fast. As she activated the plasma torch the droid let out a screech as all of its internal circuitry burned apart and fell silent.

Moving with a speed and fluidity that surprised her Arielynn wrenched her weapon from the droid's smoking chassis and turned to impale another droid that had tried to attack her from behind. Suddenly her senses screamed at her and she could 'see' a droid charging its laser behind her. Tossing herself to the ground, Arielynn felt the heat as the laser passed above her singeing a few strands of blond hair. Gritting her teeth the former Jedi sprung to her feet and in one fluid motion activated the plasma torch, spun around, and threw it at the last droid. The torch struck home, impaling the droid's faceplate and blowing its head apart. The entire battle had taken less than ten seconds.

Breathing heavily, Arielynn leaned up against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor. It had been a long time since she had exerted herself that much. As her breathing slowly returned to normal and the adrenaline left her body Arielynn found herself thinking back over the fight.

It had seemed like instinct at the time but the more she thought about it the more she was reminded of her days sparing with Master Kavar. Of the few times her Master had allowed her to go on missions with him. Those missions often ended in conflict and she had been forced to defend herself. She was reminded of the war, when she had fought alongside Malak against Mandalorian shock troops on the forest moon of Dxun.

But the Force had abandoned her seven years ago. It couldn't just come back now. Could it?

_Can't it?_ came the sound of Kreia's voice. _You hear it do you not? It is faint, distant, but it is there._ Arielynn looked around but wasn't really surprised when she didn't see the old woman.

It seemed Kreia was a Jedi. Of course she was a Jedi, Arielynn should have realized earlier. Even so Arielynn was surprised at the clarity of the telepathy.

While it was commonly thought that Jedi were capable of reading minds and detecting thoughts this wasn't actually true, at least not in the literal sense. While it was true that many Jedi were able to sense emotions and intentions they were not actually capable of detecting specific words and thoughts. It was the same with sending messages through the Force, emotions, feelings and even images could be relatively easily passed between Jedi who were close to each other, but not even the most talented Consulars were capable of actually sending more than a few simple words, certainly not coherent sentences like Kreia. Whoever the old woman really was, she was frighteningly powerful.

_You are surprised._ _Did you not sense the Force in me when we met?_

No she had not. She had long ago lost the ability to sense those things, hadn't she?

_Interesting. Perhaps you were only able to feel the Force again in the same way you had felt it strongest before. It hardly matters. You feel it now._

Arielynn didn't believe that she could suddenly begin to feel the Force again after so long. But she couldn't shake the feelings she felt. It did seem like the Force again, albeit on a much smaller scale.

_I will guide you along the familiar paths, you will need it if we are to survive and escape this place._ And with that Arielynn found herself alone in silence again.

The very idea of it seemed surreal; she couldn't just reconnect to the Force after eight years. The Force wasn't just something that manifested itself on a whim. But then, she never had really understood why she had lost her connection in the first place.

Whatever the case, Arielynn had to find a way off the facility. She could debate her spirituality after she was safely out of this fuel-rich minefield.

Pulling herself to her feet she began making her way past the broken droids, grateful for the boots as bits of shrapnel crunched underneath her feet. Fortunately there were no more droids to be seen in the room as she entered the communications chamber. Not about to take any chances however, she kept her senses alert as she walked towards the central communications computer blister.

It wasn't long until she realized that there was very little she could actually do. The console needed the proper codes to be accessed and only the communications officer and the facility administrator would have those. There was also no visible access panel where she could attempt to bypass the security. Not that it would have done much good; she was horrendous at that sort of thing.

With the entire facility in lockdown and no way to reach the miners if they were even still alive Arielynn was hard pressed for options. Then she remembered something from the security cameras. There had been a man in captivity. The holding cells had been blocked off so he should still be there.

Looking at the terminal she was happy to see that the command to override the droids and open the holding cell doors did not require authorization. Activating the command she heard the telltale sound of a force field deactivating in the distance.

Remembering that the man had probably been locked up for a reason, the most obvious being that he was responsible for the rampaging droids, she prepared herself for the worst and walked towards the holding cells.

As she approached the cell door the now familiar sound of Kreia's voice echoed in her head, _Beyond this door someone yet lives._ There was a slight pause before she continued, _Be mindful. His thoughts are difficult to read. But you have nothing to fear from this one and he may yet prove useful._

Arielynn nodded and pushed the panel to open the door.

The room was typical of a holding cell you'd expect on a non-military facility. There wasn't much more than a couple holding fields and a security box or two for belongings. The only thing of any interest in the room was the man who occupied one of the cells. He was sitting on the floor of his cage, back against the metal pillar that connected the ceiling and floor of the device, with his knees bent up to his chin due to lack of space.

He was somewhat shifty looking, like your typical good-for-nothing card shark; Force knows the galaxy was full of them. Arielynn supposed he could be considered decent looking; his face was narrow with a slightly pointed nose. He had messy dark hair and looked like he hadn't showered or shaved in days. His clothing was casual, a simple white shirt and black pants.

He had had his neck craned back, probably counting ceiling tiles, but lowered his chin when he heard the door open. As she walked in he cracked what he probably believed to be a lady killing smile.

"Nice outfit." He grinned stupidly as his eyes traced over her body, stopping for longer than necessary at a few select spots. "You miners change regulation uniforms while I've been in here?"

Arielynn rolled her eyes. "Keep those eyes above my neck. Who are you?" she demanded.

The man complied, somewhat sulkily and answered. "Atton. Atton Rand. Excuse me if I don't shake hands. The field only causes mild electrical burns." He tapped the field with his boot to emphasize the point. "Who are you? You weren't around when I got locked in here; I'd remember a woman like you." There was that grin again.

"Arielynn," she answered. Whoever this man was he was obviously a creep. "Care to explain why you're locked up?" she inquired. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "it wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the malfunctioning droids would it?" she questioned, gauging Atton's face for any hint of a reaction.

"What droids?" His face showed genuine confusion, either he really didn't know anything or he was an excellent actor.

"Never mind. Why are you in here?"

"Security claims I violated some sort of regulation or another." He answered flippantly. "Take it up with them if you want, but they stopped listening to me shortly before they stopped feeding me. Speaking of which, you wouldn't happen to have any food would you?" His stomach growled loudly for emphasis.

Arielynn was about to ask where she would put it, but she thought better of it. Instead she just shook her head and continued questioning him. "This facility's completely deserted. What happened?"

"Do you mean before or after the Jedi showed up?" Atton pulled himself up from the ground, taking care not touch the field. He was actually quite tall, about half a foot taller than she was. He rubbed his neck to get the kinks out and continued his story.

"I got tossed in here about a week ago, everything was running smoothly then. Well as smoothly as it gets around here anyways. Then a few days ago, this Jedi shows up unconscious. I heard it from the guard who brought me my food." He elaborated when he saw Arielynn's skeptical look.

"Anyways, you know how the Jedi are. Where one goes trouble usually follows." Arielynn shifted nervously at that remark but it didn't seem like Atton noticed.

"A bunch of the miners got together and were talking about selling the Jedi to the exchange. You could buy a small planet with the bounty they're offering, hell you could probably buy a decent-sized planet." Arielynn was shocked at that, the Jedi had certainly fallen far in eight years.

"Well, what passes for the law around here didn't like that idea very much. Then there were some big explosions, I was sitting here for a long time, then you showed up in your underwear and things got a lot better." He flashed the grin again and Arielynn felt a very strong urge to leave him in the cage to rot. Pushing that happy thought aside she asked another question.

"Why did the Exchange place a bounty on Jedi?"

Atton shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me. Maybe they want one as a trophy. There's not very many left though, that's why the bounty's so high."

That shocked the former Jedi. "Not many left? What happened to them?" there had been thousands of Jedi when she had left, they couldn't all be gone.

Atton looked at her like she'd just asked him why water was wet. Arielynn suddenly wished that she had paid more attention the Republic events during her exile. "Most of them were killed during the Jedi Civil War and those that weren't have gone into hiding," he answered. "I even heard the Council was even disbanded but I haven't been that far coreward in a long time."

The Jedi Civil War? During her travels Arielynn had heard the rumors of another war raging in the Republic but she hadn't known that it had involved the Jedi so deeply. "I had heard about a war, but a war between Jedi?"

"Yeah, Revan, Malak, and all the Jedi that went to join them in the Mandalorian Wars. They all turned against the other Jedi and had a scrap that almost laid waste to the Galaxy. Where have you been?" Atton asked, staring at her like she had grown a third arm.

"I've been away since the Mandalorian Wars." She replied absently. Revan and Malak had turned against the Republic? She didn't believe it; her friends had fought to save the Republic.

"Well I wasn't there," Atton commented. "But like all Sith, Revan and Malak turned on each other. After they turned on the Jedi, of course. Malak killed her and continued to attack the Republic. They finally managed to stop him five standard years ago."

"So Revan and Malak are dead?" Arielynn asked, afraid to know the answer.

"Well," Atton began; he was clearly uncomfortable with the current topic. "I remember hearing a rumor that Revan had survived Malak's betrayal. Apparently she was saved by the Jedi and turned back to the 'light' side," Atton remarked, making air quotes with his fingers. "I even heard that she had been the one to lead the assault on Malak's stronghold and personally finish him, but those could just be rumors. Malak's as dead as they come though, yeah. Why? You knew them?"

She nodded sadly, "I served in the Mandalorian Wars with them but left after the war ended. I didn't know they became Sith. They were that bad, eh?"

"Yeah, Revan especially. Dark Jedi are bad enough, but when a woman falls to the dark side you better space yourself before she catches you." He laughed, but then he saw her glaring at him, "Uh, no offense or anything."

She pushed away her feelings, she could cry for her fallen friends after she was safe. "None taken. I've got some more questions for you."

Atton sighed impatiently, "Look, not like your half-naked interrogation isn't a personal fantasy of mine, but could you at least-" he stopped and seemed to finally realize something. "Hey, you're that Jedi the miners were all talking about. Where is everyone?"

Arielynn sighed. "I was hoping you could tell me that."

"From my beautiful view from this security cage? All I heard were some distant explosions, the lockdown alarm, and the sounds of a bunch of droids running around outside that door."

"Maybe they're all ready dead," he continued. "Either way let me out of this cage and I can help you. I've gotten myself out of trouble countless times." Arielynn could only imagine the kind of 'trouble' Atton could get himself into. But he did seem sincere, although she wasn't about to trust him that easily.

"Seems to me that you were locked up for a reason." She challenged, crossing her arms.

"That was just a little misunderstanding, trumped-up charges. I could clear it if I could just speak to someone in charge, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon. Unless you let me out." He smiled again, although this one wasn't quite as lecherous.

Arielynn sighed; even if she didn't trust him she didn't really have any other options. "How can you help?"

Atton frowned. "Stubborn little Jedi aren't you? Just in case you don't understand the trouble we're in, let me lay it out for you."

"This facility is a series of mining tunnels dropping kilometers into the asteroid's core. Every worker and droid here has been cleared, then triple-cleared for hazardous operations."

"This facility has an operational threat level so high they don't even let un-cleared starships in system out of fear that an accidental engine discharge will create a very brief, very hot new sun in this sector."

"You know why? Because every asteroid in this orbiting minefield has deposits of Peragian fuel within it. And that means that when one decides to pop, all its brothers and sisters are going to come along for the ride"

Arielynn held up a hand to stop his ranting, "Yes, I'm very much aware of the explosive tendencies of Peragian fuel, thank you. What you failed to mention was how you're supposed to help me avoid that. Something tells me the asteroids won't play nice just because you asked them to.

Atton grumbled angrily, "Look, this isn't a military installation which means we may still have a chance in getting off this rock. Let me out of this cell and I'll reroute the emergency systems so that we can get to the hangers. We grab a ship and then fly the hell out of here."

There was something about Atton that Arielynn didn't quite trust but it seemed like she had no choice. She hated to admit it but his was the best plan they had.

"Alright," she conceded. "I'll trust you. Stand back." He did so and she pressed the buttons on the panel to lower the security field.

Atton stretched his arms wide as he walked outside of the cell. "Ah! It feels good to have some space to breath again," he exclaimed, smiling. Walking past her he began to go through the lockers placed to the side of the room. "Now where'd they put that jacket?"

Arielynn just watched in confused amazement as he pulled out a dark brown jacket from one of the lockers. "Aha!" he exclaimed as he put it on. The jacket, although Arielynn thought it looked more like a vest really, had obviously undergone some kind of extensive armor upgrades. Although she couldn't figure out what purpose, if any, those bizarre ribbed shoulder pads served.

He turned to her and gave her another lopsided grin, "Now to business, we need to get to the command console. Ladies first." He said bowing slightly, holding out an arm as if she needed guidance to the door.

Arielynn would have laughed if she hadn't expected that he just wanted to 'enjoy the view'. "I don't think so. You go first, and don't make any sudden moves."

Atton laughed and threw his arms into the air, "Fine, fine. Just trying to be a gentleman." He turned and left the room and Arielynn followed closely behind.

As they made their way to the command console they passed the large pile of broken droids. Atton let out a low whistle, "Did you do that?"

Arielynn nodded, "The droids are actually very bad at combat. It wasn't as hard as it might seem."

Atton snorted in response. "Not for a Jedi," he muttered just loud enough to be heard.

Arielynn was tired of hearing that. "Listen, your miner friends were wrong. I'm not a Jedi. I don't carry around a lightsaber, I can't use the Force and I don't preach some hypocritical nerfshit about sacrifice while watching billions of innocent people die!" she yelled, louder than she had intended. Forcing herself to calm down, she kept her eyes straight ahead, "I'm just an old soldier who's tired of war." If the man had a snappy comeback for that he wisely kept it to himself.

When they reached the command console Atton sat down in front of it. "All right, here we are. Now this console is set on automatic hail, you may have heard it when you came in," he said to Arielynn.

"I was unconscious when I arrived." She replied, coming up to stand beside the chair.

"Well, the asteroid drift charts are constantly being updated, so it sends out transmissions to incoming vessels so they don't get crushed into space dust," he explained. "The hail warns them to stay their distance until orbital drift charts can be transmitted, and then provides docking instructions to incoming ships, usually freighters."

"The thing is, you can usually bounce that same transmission back to the comm here," he claimed as he began entering something into the terminal. "And suddenly you have access to the communications system from the inside."

Arielynn was impressed. For all his scoundrel-like qualities it seemed Atton actually knew what he was doing. Of course it could also be said that manipulating a system to avoid security was a decidedly scoundrel-like quality.

"Pure pazaak, the console's ours," he laughed. "Now, all we need to do is re-activate the turbo-lifts, cancel the emergency lockdown, and- Hey," he exclaimed.

Arielynn didn't like the sound of that. "It sounds like you're about to tell me something I don't want to hear," she said leaning in to look at the console screen.

Atton turned to look up at her, "The system's been severed from the main hub, after it was locked down from remote. You can't even reroute the system, it's been cut clean."

"That's not standard procedure during an emergency lockdown," she stated.

"No it's not." Atton rubbed his chin, as if surprised to find it covered in course stubble, "Someone's tried to lock down this whole level tight and leave us, or you probably, trapped."

"Is there anything we can do from this console?" she asked, somewhat surprised that anyone wanted to get a hold of her that badly.

Atton shook his head, "I doubt it. All we have is communications back, for all the good trying to shout in a vacuum will do us."

Arielynn tried to think of their options, "Can we reach the miners?"

"We could try; they're probably holed up in the dormitories. But if the miners were trying to trap you up here and probably kill you, why not call them up and chat? I doubt a friendly call is going to wake them up." Atton remarked sarcastically.

She shrugged, "We don't really have much choice, do we? Maybe they'll come to their senses when they realize their lives are at risk too."

Atton slid out of the chair to let her sit down, "Be my guest. Not much else to do anyways. The comm's all yours. I'm going to see if I can find some food." He left her alone with the console.

Watching through the administration logs Arielynn didn't learn a whole lot. There was the same talk of the Jedi and how the accidents had just recently begun to occur. She did learn that it had apparently been a protocol droid that had identified her as a Jedi and its master. Arielynn was confused at that, she didn't remember ever owning a droid.

Switching the terminal to the communication systems she tried reaching the dormitories but there were no answers. After several repeated tries she began hailing different locations. But all of them were just as unresponsive as the last. Finally she reached Hanger Bay 25. She didn't expect it to be any more responsive than the previous 24 but she spoke into the comm regardless.

"This is the command deck. Is anyone there? I repeat. This is the command deck. Is anyone there?"

Arielynn almost fell out of her seat when a series of low-pitched whistles and beeps answered her. A utility droid. Praying to the Force that it wasn't as defective as the rest of the droids she leaned in and spoke through the comm again.

"Can you read me?"

An affirmative chirp responded. Arielynn breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the droid was normal.

"Are you operational?"

Another affirmative series of chirps replied. They might just get out of this yet.

"We're trapped on the administration level. Can you unlock the turbolifts?"

The comm was silent for a moment then before the droid came back on, beeping in an apologetic tone.

Still Arielynn wasn't deterred. "There must be emergency hatches, see if you can find one."

The droid beeped frantically.

"I'd rather risk it than be trapped up here," she tried to calm the energetic droid down. "Just see what you can do, please."

The droid let out a nervous hum but seemed to comply. As the beeping sounds of the droid faded away from the comm Arielynn leaned back into the chair and let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't much, but at least there was now a chance that they'd survive this.

"Any luck?" Atton asked as he wandered back towards the command console. He must have found a food generator because he was chewing on some kind of bar-like substance. He offered her one as he came up beside her, which she took gratefully.

"I found a utility droid that appears to be functional. I sent it to open the door for us," she replied as she bit into the bar. It turned out to be some kind of meat product. It was too salty for her tastes but she was hungry enough that she didn't care.

He leaned up against the computer terminal, ripping open another bar. "So our lives are now in the hands of a rolling trash compactor. Wonderful."

"You have a better idea?" she asked.

"A couple," he replied giving her that stupid grin of his.

"You're disgusting."

He laughed, than took another bite from his foodbar, "Your loss."

Arielynn doubted that. They sat it silence for a few minutes; she finished her bar and tossed the wrapper aside. She was still hungry but it would have to do for now.

"So," Atton began. Arielynn swiveled the chair to face him. "Uh, how long have you been a Jedi? Must be tough." He rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to engage conversation, "You know no family, no husband…"

Arielynn rolled her eyes, he was so immature. "No tougher than enduring your false sympathy while you're staring at my chest," she replied glaringly.

Atton immediately raised his eyelevel and threw up his hands as if to ward off an attack. "Hey, I wasn't trying-" his sentence was cut off by a sound from the terminal. The sound of a blast door opening could be heard in the distance.

"Hey, what do you know? That that little cargo cylinder came through after all." He remarked, looking at the console screen.

Arielynn nodded, "It's strange that he didn't contact us on the comm though." She tried to reach the droid from the terminal but couldn't find the little utility droid anywhere.

"Who cares? If he got the turbolifts working, than we should have a clear run to the hanger," Atton exclaimed happily.

"I'm afraid not," the ex-Jedi replied, getting up out of the chair. "The turbolifts are locked down manually, so I had him open the emergency hatch."

Atton stared at her in shock. "Wait, are you telling me you're going down into the mining tunnels?"

Arielynn nodded, "Something wrong with that?"

"That explosion I heard come from below. There's probably nothing down there but superheated rock and collapsed blast tunnels," he exclaimed vehemently. "You'd have to be an idiot to go down there."

The ex-Jedi shrugged her shoulders. "Probably, but it's the only way out and I'd rather risk my life than yours."

Atton stared at her with a strange mix of awe and disgust. "You're either really brave or really, really crazy. Or both." But he didn't try to stop her.

"Suit yourself. I'll try to monitor things from up here." He said as he sat down at the console and began entering commands. "Be careful, the only thing moving down there is likely to be mining droids and you know how friendly those are. So don't try playing the suicidal hero too hard."

He seemed to realize what he said and spun the chair around to face her. "Uh, not that I care what happens to you or anything." He stammered, trying to regain some sense of masculine pride. "I just don't want to have to try and get off this rock myself."

Arielynn shook her head in disgust; men were such idiots. "Your concern is noted, Atton. I'll be going now."

"Wait." Reaching into a storage compartment, he pulled out a small object and tossed it to her. "Here. I'll keep the comlink open. I may be able to guide you through the tunnels from up here. Don't know if the signal will hold if you get to deep though."

Nodding her thanks, Arielynn turned and walked back towards where the emergency hatch was. As she walked away she heard Atton mumble something under his breath. She didn't even want to know what the card shark was thinking.

It wasn't long until she was stepping out of the emergency shaft into the mining tunnels. Judging by the ride down she estimated that she was somewhere between one to two kilometers below the asteroids surface. It was certainly much hotter in the tunnels than the facility, probably due to the steam that shot out from the walls and floor every so often. The air was thicker too, there would be enough to breathe but Arielynn didn't want to stay down here longer than necessary.

A burst of static came through the comlink. She could just barely make out Atton's voice. "Can you read me?"

"Barely," she responded, bringing the device up to her mouth. "There's a lot of static."

"There's a lot of interference down there, probably caused by the explosion." Atton explained. "Still, it looks like there's a route down to the Peragus fuel depot. If the passages haven't collapsed that is. That explosion knocked out most of the sensors."

The comlink was silent for a moment before Atton spoke again. "There should be an emergency crate in the next room. Watch yourself, there's a lot droid broadcasts in that area, but I can't pin them down."

Hopefully those droids weren't any more dangerous than the ones she'd already encountered. "I'll be careful, then," she replied. "If you detect anything, signal me."

"Will do. Atton out." The comlink went silent.

Moving on into the next room, Arielynn easily found the emergency supplies Atton had spoken of. Opening up the container, she was relieved to find a mining uniform inside. Hastily putting on the one piece suit the comlink flared on again just as she did up the zipper.

"Find those supplies?" came Atton's voice through the device.

"Yup. And I managed to find some clothes," she replied happily.

She laughed as he cursed loudly. "Uh, I mean… good. Good to hear it. No sense in you running around half-naked. It's distracting. Uh, I mean, for the droids," he stammered lamely.

"Of course it is, Atton. Anything else?"

"Uh, just one more thing." He replied, regaining his composure. "I've narrowed down some of those ID signals, and if those numbers are right, you're sharing those tunnels with a battalion of mining droids."

"Perfect," she sighed.

"On the plus side," he continued. "Thos droids rely primarily on thermal sensors, to detect fuel deposits. The thing is, that explosion may have kicked up so much heat and steam it could have blinded them a bit. Not much though."

"And if they do spot me?" she asked. Her plasma torch had melted to slag during the previous encounter and she didn't relish the thought of trying to fight off an army of droids with her bare fists.

"Well, those droids are construction models; they shoot like a moisture farmer militia. You may be able to find a portable mining laser you could use as a blaster," he offered.

Looking back into the container she was happy to see that he was right. She pulled out a small hand held mining laser and looked it over, it was certainly not as powerful as a blaster but it'd get the job done.

"Anything else I should know?" she asked into the comlink.

"There should be some central controller down there. See if you can find a terminal by the main access shaft: that'd be governing intelligence."

"Alright, I'll do that. Keep me updated," she responded, pocketing the comlink. Checking to ensure that the laser's power cell would last long enough to get out of the tunnels, Arielynn pushed deeper into the asteroid.

Unlike the largely undisturbed corridors far above her these tunnels showed extensive evidence of the accident. Large portions of the walls had collapsed and several corridors had been completely caved in. Praying that she wasn't walking into a dead end Arielynn passed through the tunnels quietly, staying alert for any droids.

She passed through multiple tunnels before coming to a large open area. There was a small generator to one side powering a mechanical lift, used for transporting the mined fuel back to the surface. Several mining tools Arielynn couldn't recognize had been strewn to one side of the room, abandoned by the miner who had once used them. Aside from that this chamber was empty as well. Where were all the droids?

Her thoughts were interrupted as the comlink came to life again. "Hey, watch out," came the sound of Atton's voice. She noticed that the signal was even messier than before, she must be moving further away from the communications sector. "That chamber is giving of weird electromagnetic signals. The frequencies match those of the sonic mines the mining droids use."

"Sonic mines?" Arielynn asked, scanning the floor of the chamber. Sure enough she noticed the small metal devices littered about the room.

"Yeah, the droids use them to clear out the rock."

"But why are they here?" she asked.

"It's possible that when the droids went rogue they started placing charges to kill the miners," he responded. Well that explained why the mines were so poorly hidden, mining droids wouldn't know anything about planting effective minefields.

"I doubt you can disable them remotely," Arielynn stated.

"I'm afraid not." Of course not, that would be far too easy. "You'll have to avoid them or disable them manually," Atton remarked.

"Copy that," she sighed.

Arielynn carefully made her way towards the minefield. Fortunately for her, the droids had placed them randomly so she wouldn't have to disable them all.

After Dxun, Arielynn had vowed to learn more about demolitions. She was never going to be responsible for that many deaths again because of her own ignorance. Using a trick she had learned in the war Arielynn was able to use her comlink to send out a short signal burst that countered the signal sent out by the mine, so she could safely disable it. She pocketed the mine; one never knew when it might come in useful. Working her way through the minefield, it wasn't long until she reached the other side.

Pushing deeper into the tunnels she eventually came upon a large area, the fuel containment room. In the center of the room was large hole where liquefied Peragian fuel was placed until it could be transported to the surface. Along the walls were 4 large containment fields. Arielynn didn't know enough about the facility to know what those were for. Suspended above the pool was a bridge with a computer located halfway. Seeing no droids in this room either Arielynn made her way to the computer.

In the computers archives she found a holorecording of three miners discussing their plans to sell her, seemed this Coorta was about as friendly as a Hutt. Looking through the computer's map for a way out of the containment room she saw that the explosion had blocked of the tunnel. The only other way was through the containment fields. Seeing no other choice, Arielynn entered the command to lower the fields.

It wasn't long until her comlink crackled on again, "What's going on down there?" Atton's voice demanded. "Something's happened to the containment fields."

"I had to shut them down," she replied. "They were cutting off the only way out of here."

"Oh, hell… Listen you need to get out of there now! It's about to get real hot down there, real fast," Atton yelled at her.

Arielynn had the feeling that she had just done something stupid, "I could just turn the fields back on."

"It's too late for that. I think I can hold it back long enough for you to get to the turbolifts, but you'd better move fast."

Arielynn wasn't paying attention though, as the sounds of over a hundred approaching mining droids echoed throughout the tunnels around her. It seems they had noticed the absence of the field too.

"Uh, Atton, I think I'm gonna need a few minutes." She pocketed the comlink and began to run as fast as she could towards the exit.

Unfortunately for her, the droids were coming from that direction too. The entire hallway was clogged as dozens of droids tried to pull themselves over each other to get at her. As she ran she fired her laser into the mob, it was almost impossible to miss with so many targets and three droids stumbled to the ground as their sensors were burned away by the laser blasts, but the other droids hardly slowed down as they just crawled over the corpses of their fallen brethren.

Droids began pouring out of the other tunnels all around the fuel containments like some perverse wave of mechanical death. With so many droids pursuing her Arielynn was extremely grateful for the rapidly increasing temperature in the tunnels; she only received a few mild burns as laser shot past her, the droids aim hampered greatly by the hot air.

As she rapidly approached the tsunami of droids she hoped that Kreia hadn't been lying to her; she'd need the Force for what she was about to do. She fired a few shots backwards at the droids chasing her and ran even faster at the droids closing in ahead of her. As every rational part of her brain screamed at her to stop she placed her faith in her instincts and jumped.

Clearing the first rows of droids Arielynn landed heavily on the back of a mining droid 20 feet from the front of the line. Wasting no time, Arielynn leapt from the back of that droid and proceeded to hop from droid to droid.

As droids all around her tried to react to her erratic movements she stopped only to slam the sonic mine her carried onto the top of a droid. She quickly activated the mine and leapt away. As she touched down on the other side of the droid mob the tunnel behind her shook as the sonic mine detonated, turning the closest droids to dust.

Breathing heavily, Arielynn continued her mad dash through the tunnels. Behind her the droids quickly realized their quarry had escaped them and rapidly moved to pursue. Chunks of the walls fell away as dozens of lasers barely missed her. Crying out as one struck her leg, the ex-Jedi almost fell over. But she pushed herself to move on and as she rounded another corner in the seemingly endless maze of tunnels she saw it. The exit. Forcing another burst of speed out of her tired legs she sprinted madly for the turbolift as the tunnels around her began to shake.

Somewhere behind her a fuel pump detonated as she punched the panel to open the turbolifts. Ducking inside quickly she slammed her fist into the 'up' button. As the doors closed painfully slowly she could see the droids as they approached the lift. Arielynn had to duck as one fired a lucky shot that almost hit her head.

Finally the doors closed and the lift began ascending quickly. Arielynn finally allowed herself a tired sigh of relief.

* * *

Thanks to all you Star Wars fans who have read this far. And remember that the aspiring author thrives on reviews and you wouldn't want me to starve to death before I finish the story, right? Right? Anyways, chapter 2 should be up sometime next week. And who knows, maybe they actually get off Peragus. 


	3. Droids and Vibroknives

Disclaimer- I do not own Star Wars.

* * *

Chapter 2: Droids and Vibroknives

As the turbolift doors slid open Arielynn felt the shaft shake violently and heard the distant sound of rushing air below her. Acting quickly, she threw herself out of the turbolift seconds before the box was engulfed by superheated vapor. Hitting the ground at a roll, Arielynn came to stop to see the turbolift doors slam shut just in time to prevent the gas from escaping the shaft.

Shaken slightly by how close to death she had just come, that vapor was hot enough to burn the skin right off her bones, Arielynn pushed herself off the floor and pulled out her comlink. "Cutting it a little close, don't you think?" she remarked, although she knew that she probably owed Atton her life for containing the blast as long as he had.

The device stayed silent. Arielynn groaned; either that blast had fried the entire administration level or she was out of signal range. Either way, it meant she was alone now. Turning away from the broken turbolift, she began to survey the area.

Judging by the piles of broken droid parts and tools strewn throughout the area she guessed that she had come up into the maintenance area. Walking towards the closest room Arielynn almost cried out when one of the most horrifying things she'd ever seen came into view.

The body of a miner lay on the ground. Kneeling down beside it, she tried to examine the body. She guessed that it had been a human male based on the rough body structure although it was hard to tell much more than that. Unlike the body of the security officer, who had been brutally murdered but had retained most of his features, this poor corpse had been completely butchered.

His skin had been completely burned off, and in many places the muscle had also been burned away so that charred bits of bone showed through. Both of his legs looked like they had been burned through and tossed aside and of one of his arms had been viciously ripped off at the elbow. What little remained of his uniformed had been seared directly to the body and what looked like goggles had been melted completely to his forehead.

But his face was the worst. Most of the skin and muscle had been melted off and what was left could barely be recognized as human. His eyes had melted away and all his hair had been burned from his scalp. Arielynn only hoped that the miner had died before suffered too much, but the terrifying scream that his face had frozen in dissolved most of those hopes.

"Greeting: It is a pleasure to see you alive, Master. Provided my optical receptors are not off-focus. How may I be of service?"

Arielynn whirled around, bringing up the mining laser and pointed it directly at the voice. But the humanoid droid merely regarded her through emotionless glowing eyes.

It was tall, almost seven feet, with grey-silver casing and a thin frame. Its head was somewhat triangular, sloping down to a flat mouthpiece and its slanted eyes were a dim yellow. Arielynn got the unsettling image of a predator eyeing its prey. Despite its somewhat hostile appearance the droid made no move to attack her.

"How do you know me?" she demanded without lowering her weapon. "I'm not your Master."

"Answer: This unit is a Survivor of the _Harbinger_, just are you were, Master," the droid replied in its synthetic voice. "Elaboration: With the unexpected termination of my previous Master, you are the only organic which I may now serve."

Arielynn regarded the droid warily. It was certainly a strange model, one she had never seen before her return to Republic space; and that speech pattern was just plain bizarre. But it hadn't attacked her yet and she may be able to get some information out of the droid."

"How did you get here from the _Harbinger_? And how did I?" she asked, lowering her weapon.

"Irritated Answer: Oh, Master. It is such a long, dull story. And not terribly relevant to our current situation," the droid replied, trying to evade her question

Arielynn raised an eyebrow; this was a strange droid indeed. "Well, why don't you tell me anyways?"

"Hesitant Explanation: That has been the subject of considerable discussion since our arrival here, Master. Many have attempted to claim you and this unit as salvage," the droid commented. And they were willing to kill everyone onboard the station for it Arielynn thought grimly.

"Continuation: I was crudely interrogated concerning our brief history together on board the _Harbinger_. Before its communication, weapons and engines suffered the cascade failure that disabled the ship," the droid remarked, almost too happily.

"And how come I don't remember any of this?" Arielynn asked. The last thing she remember the _Harbinger_ had been working fine.

"Speculation: It is possible you were incapacitated and locked in the well-shielded cargo compartment as the _Harbinger_ was being systematically crippled, Master."

"Incapacitated?" she asked, alarmed.

"Clarification: Yes, Master. No doubt the flurry of destruction on board the _Harbinger_ somehow drugged you into a stupor from which you could not awake. Most curious," the droid remarked.

"Drugged?" she shouted, anger slipping into her voice. "What do you mean drugged?"

"Placation: Merely a turn of phrase, Master. The implication that your state was due to the result of ingesting large quantities of juma juice was unintentional." Arielynn was sure that if the stupid droid was mocking her, if it was even capable of that.

"Clarification: I meant to communicate only that you were somehow rendered unconscious before you were securely locked in the cargo hold."

Arielynn felt the very strong urge to find whoever had designed these droids and introduce him to her fist. "Care to explain how I was locked in the cargo hold?"

"Clarification: By locked, I meant 'sealed', Master. My vocabulator seems to be malfunctioning," the droid responded, not missing a beat.

"Fine," Arielynn sighed. "What happened next?"

"Recitation: Following the unusual set of coincidences that led to the cascade failure in the _Harbinger_'s systems, we were boarded by a small freighter with unknown ID codes."

"Continuation: It appeared that this freighter had been attacked, and the captain wanted to study it as the freighter appeared to still be space worthy. Your cargo compartment was breached, and we were taken on board the freighter shortly before the _Harbinger_'s systems began to go critical."

Arielynn frowned. That was a lot of coincidences, "Where did the freighter come from?"

"Explanation: I believe it was a smuggler's vessel by the name of the _Ebon Hawk_," the droid answered. "Speculation: As for its origins, I do not know. Perhaps it was always its intention to play dead, then kidnap you off the _Harbinger_ and rob me of my bounty."

Arielynn was starting to get very suspicious of this droid, "Bounty?"

"Quick Clarification: By bounty, I refer to your life, Master. It would pain me to see you damaged in any way."

"Of course it would. So then we traveled here on the _Ebon Hawk_?"

"Confirmation: Yes, Master. Suffice to say that once we arrived at this floating rock, our situation became much clearer."

"Oh really?" Arielynn remarked. "How so?"

"Answer: One group of miners seemed intent on selling you. I believe their intentions were to collect on the bounty that has been placed on Jedi."

"And why do they think I'm a Jedi?" Arielynn asked. This droid was up to something.

"Surprised Answer: Why, I told them, Master. You are the exiled Jedi who served with Revan in the Mandalorian Wars, are you not?"

Arielynn briefly wondered how the droid knew that. Such military information was usually kept securely away from common knowledge. "It doesn't matter now. What happened next?"

"Explanation: Three hours after the division between the miners became apparent, accidents began to occur throughout the facility. A result of improper maintenance, I believe." Arielynn thought that the droid seemed rather smug while speaking of the accidents.

"Continuation: Those accidents coincided with the degradation of the mining droids behavioral cores, crude models are prone to such failures, resulting in murderous rampages. The mortality rate of organics in the facility rose quickly."

"So what happened to the rest of the miners?" Arielynn asked, a sinking feeling growing in her stomach.

"Answer: Many miners began to join you in the medical bay as a cascade of flawlessly timed detonations occurred in isolated gas pockets in the lower levels of facility," the droid remarked. Arielynn though she detected a hint of pride in the droids voice.

"Elaboration: The explosions herded the miners into emergency sections of the station, quickly and efficiently cutting them off from communications and facility control, but sadly enough, not the ventilation systems."

The sinking feeling in her stomach got even worse, "Sadly enough? What happened?"

"Response: The explosions had damaged specific sections of this facility's ventilation systems, causing a slow lethal build up of toxic fumes in the dormitory level."

Arielynn gasped in horror, "Anyone escaping to the dormitory level would be killed. We need to see if there are survivors!"

"Discouraging Remark: It is unlikely any miners remain alive. As I said, the dormitory level has been cut off from the rest of the facility," the droid remarked. It seemed not to care about the fates of the other miners.

"There's always another way," Arielynn remarked.

"Theory: You could walk across the surface of the asteroid to the dormitory airlock, but such a route would be extremely hazardous, and I do not wish to see you damaged."

"Those miners might still be alive, and hurt," Arielynn exclaimed. "I'm going to find them and you're going to help me."

"Weary Resignation: Very well, Master. But there is very little that I can do. The airlock is governed by a console that has been voice-printed."

"Musing: In the last days of his life, the maintenance officer," the droid gestured to the corpse, "was quite careful about voice protocols, bordering on paranoid obsession."

"Conjecture: I suspect once he realized something was wrong in the facility, he voice-locked the droid bay functions. A prudent measure, but as you can see he met the same fate as the other organics."

That was a problem. It was a common practice throughout the galaxy to install recognition sensors into a console so that it could only be accessed by select individuals. It was generally an effective security measure too. Unless you had access to some kind of recording device the only way to bypass the security was to rip out the console and install a new one. But she didn't have that kind of time or expertise.

"What happened to him?" she asked, eyeing the droid suspiciously.

"Answer: That is all that remains of the maintenance officer, Master. At the end, he was quite incoherent from the pain, and attempts to facilitate communications with him proved useless."

"Wait, you watched him die!" she demanded, her anger rising again.

"Recitation: Oh yes, Master. The records of his last moments were:"

The droid then proceeded to replicate the voice of a man who was desperately trying to escape from the mining droids. He began crying as the broke through the door and set upon him, mining him like they would a piece of rock. The screams were so horrible that Arielynn had to turn away and cover her ears. The droid meanwhile almost seemed to enjoy the carnage.

Holding up a hand to stop the droid, she turned to him and angrily asked, "If you were there, why didn't you help him?"

"Answer: Master! I am merely a protocol droid, not a lethal assassination droid of unsurpassed sophistication. I am not programmed for combat."

Arielynn didn't like how quickly the droid had mentioned 'assassination droid' but she didn't want to waste any more time while miners were possibly injured. "Whatever, I'm going to go look for a way to the dormitories."

"Exasperated Reply: Very well, Master. If you insist. But I assure you, this facility has been locked down with droid-level precision. You will not find a way to escape."

"Droid-level precision, eh?" Arielynn repeated, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Reply: Master, if you insist on repeating every word I say than this already tedious conversation is in danger of becoming even longer."

"You sounded almost proud of the facility's current status," she stated ignoring the droid's previous statement.

"Rebuttal: Oh, Master. If there has been some confusion over the context of my response, I assure you that it is merely a result of a faulty vocabulator. This unit has been under an unusual amount of strain lately and is in need of maintenance."

Arielynn was tired of talking to a droid she suspected knew more about what was going on than it let on. She needed to find a way to get to the dormitory level. Ordering the droid to remain where it was Arielynn began to explore the rest of the maintenance area.

Sure enough, when she came to the airlock she found that it had indeed been locked with a voice-code. Looking through the maintenance logs she didn't learn anything that she didn't already know or suspect. The maintenance officer had been at a complete loss as to why the droids had been malfunctioning, and had assigned the protocol droid she'd just met to work at communicating to the mining droid's behavioral cores. He had been hoping that the droid would be able to learn what was wrong with the droids.

The most interesting thing that she learned was that the maintenance officer had been developing a Sonic Imprint Sensor. The device had originally been intended o be used in issuing voice commands to the mining droids although Arielynn didn't think that'd be happening anymore. Looking through the storage compartments she laughed triumphantly as she pulled out the small device.

Looking back towards where the 'protocol' droid was she grinned mischievously as she was hit by sudden inspiration.

As far as he could see it, Atton was screwed. Ever since that stupid Jedi had disabled those fuel containment fields and almost blew up the entire facility he had been unable to locate her signal. She had probably been incinerated down in those tunnels. Atton sighed as he leaned back in the chair looking at the blank terminal.

Leave it to a Jedi to go and get herself killed and leave him all alone on a bomb floating in space. Oh well, at least there was one less Jedi in the galaxy now. It was almost too bad though Atton thought; she had had an amazing body.

He grinned slightly as he began to imagine some of the nicer things that body could do when the console beeped again.

Amazed he leaned forward and entered a few commands into the terminal, maybe that Jedi wasn't as suicidal as he thought. There it was. Her signal appeared on the display again, but it was coming from outside the facility, on the asteroids surface.

That was crazy though, not even she could be that stupid. Keying up the comm he hailed her frequency, "It's about time you showed up. Where have you been?"

"It's a long story," her voiced responded. "I'll have to share it with you some time. Let's just say if I ever meet the guy who designed those new protocol droids he'd better run fast."

Protocol Droids? Atton didn't even want to know what she was talking about; no one could get into trouble faster than a Jedi, except maybe him. "Right," he replied. "Your signal's coming in clear now. Although I'm picking you up on the exterior of the facility, on the asteroids surface. That can't be right."

"Really?" Atton could hear the smile in her voice. "Maybe you should look up."

Atton didn't know what she was talking about but he did so, and nearly jumped out of his seat. Out on the scaffolding running along the exterior of the complex was someone dressed in a pressurized space suit. As he stared in bewildered amazement the suit raised an arm and waved at him.

"Does the suit make me look fat?" she asked.

What the hell was wrong with this woman? "What the kriff are you doing out there?"

"Oh, you know. I just thought I could use the walk," she replied flippantly.

"You're crazy," he exclaimed. "Even for a Jedi."

"You noticed, how sweet," she replied sarcastically. "I'm heading to the dormitories to check for survivors, if we're lucky the administration officer will still be alive and he'll have the codes to bypass the emergency lockdown."

His next thought was interrupted as he noticed something blink onto the console display out of the corner of his eye. Looking back down at the display he groaned at what he saw. "Listen, you need to get out of there fast."

"It's not as easy to move in this thing as it looks," she bit back. "I'm going as fast as I can."

"Go faster," he demanded. "What little is left of this place's venting systems have just gone active." He brought up a display of the Peragus facility. "And lucky you, it's right in your path."

Atton smirked slightly as the woman swore over the comm, loudly.

"Can't you shut it down?" she asked.

"'Fraid not. I'm locked out of the system," he answered. "It's weird. The vents look like they've been purposely rerouted to vent the gases to the exterior, and only in the last few minutes. It's almost like-"

"Someone wants to keep me from reaching the other side," she finished for him. "That evil tin-plated scrapheap."

"What?" Atton asked, confused.

"Listen," she began. "If you see a durasteel colored protocol droid around, be careful. I think that it may be what's causing all the trouble around here."

Atton was about to inquire how a single protocol droid could be so dangerous when he was interrupted by another beep from the console. "Oh, what now!"

He brought up the command screen to see what the fuss was about. "I don't believe this," he sent over the comm, "there's a ship coming in, sending a docking code."

Atton watched out the viewport as a Republic _Capital_-class ship came out of hyperspace and entered the asteroid field. The ship itself looked a little worse for wear and Atton didn't know how it was still flying, let alone maneuvering through the asteroid field.

The ship slowed down as it approached the mining facility, coming up to stop beside the docking mechanisms. Atton watched as the console displayed the successful activation of the docking clamp and extension of the fuel pipe.

Atton didn't like the looks of that ship. Not only did it look like it should have crashed a long time ago but the ship seemed completely dead. There was no moment visible through the viewports along the ship's exterior and nothing had yet made any move to cross the docking tunnel. He tried to key up the comm and hail the ship but no one responded.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

"I don't think you know how right you are," Arielynn replied. The Jedi had grown almost sullen as the ship approached.

"If you're going to go you should do it now, before those gases get any worse."

"Alright," she responded. "If you don't hear from me in a standard hour than I want you to head for the medical bay, find an old woman named Kreia and head for the hanger. Just forget about me."

Atton wasn't especially crazy about leaving her behind but he had long ago learned that someone could only rely on themselves. "Alright. Good luck, you're going to need it."

As she entered the dormitory level the first thing Arielynn noticed was the mess. This part of the facility had been hit hard by the recent 'accidents'. Thinking back to the protocol droid she doubted that it was just coincidence. Most of the miners would have retreated here, right into whatever trap had been laid for them.

Quietly moving through the hallways so as not draw unwanted attention to herself Arielynn slowly made her way out of the airlock and through the hallways, eventually coming into a large room. The room looked like it had been a storage hold; several lockers and storage shelves were lined up along the walls and a collection of space suits had been placed in a corner. Most of the shelves had fallen over and debris littered the floor.

A single body lay in the middle of the room. Fortunately for her stomach this one was not as badly mutilated as the others she'd seen. The miner was clutching a strange canister tightly in his hands. Kneeling down she pried the canister out of the miner's death grip. Pulling the top off she found that it was filled with a white powder. Highly-refined Andris spice. Arielynn huffed in disgust and tossed the can aside, the miner had been a spicehead and had died trying to get his fix.

Looking around the room Arielynn tried to find something that looked like storage for the mining lasers. She had been forced to leave her weapon behind in order to fit into the space suit and she was eager to find a replacement. She quickly found the storage compartment she was looking for and laughed triumphantly as she pulled out a large advanced mining laser designed to burn through thick rocks and metals.

It was much larger and heavier than her previous weapon and she would have to hold it in both hands to fire properly, like a blaster rifle. Pointing it towards one of the storage canisters she activated the laser. She grinned as she saw the heavy laser cut easily through the durasteel plating. She'd hate to be the droid she used this on.

Seeing nothing else of worth she opened the door to the next room, and threw herself to the ground as a white beam almost took her head. Rolling to the side to avoid another ray she sprung to her feet to view her attacker. The turret swiveled to follow her and shot at her again. Barely avoiding the attack, Arielynn leapt to the side and brought up her laser. As the turret swiveled to attack her again she fired the weapon. One shot was all it took.

After the turret droid was destroyed the ex-Jedi turned to look at the wall behind her. Large patches of it were covered in a white ice-like substance. She reached forward to touch it but pulled her hand back immediately. It was so cold that it burned her skin. Carbonite freezing was a common technique for putting out fires and it seemed that the Peragus facility had installed fire-prevention turrets. Of course the simple droids had been affected the same as all the others during the disaster.

Arielynn sighed; it seemed the galaxy just wasn't going to give her a break. The effects of carbonite freezing on life forms had never been tested and Arielynn certainly didn't want to be the first, temperatures that cold could kill instantly.

Moving past the destroyed turret Arielynn moved towards where the dormitories would be.

It wasn't very long until she was standing in front of the dormitory doors. Pressing the panel to open them she found them locked, probably done so that the miners would be unable to escape and warn someone what was happening in the facility, or call for help. She looked around for a terminal that she could use to open the door and found one behind her. After opening the emergency doors Arielynn remembered what the protocol droid had said about the poison in the ventilation systems and shut them down as a precaution.

Upon entering the dormitory Arielynn let out an involuntary gasp. The floor was littered with bodies. She almost turned and left right then but she had to think about those who were still alive, they needed the override codes.

"Is anyone still alive?" she called out, hoping that maybe someone had survived, against the odds. When only silence answered her Arielynn was forced to abandon those hopes.

Looking around the floor for the body of the administration officer Arielynn tried not to look at the faces of the dead bodies as they stared up at her with blank eyes, pleading for her to restore what they lost. Finding the body she was looking for Arielynn checked the administration officer for anything that might contain the codes she needed, silently asking for his forgiveness. She found a holocube in one of his pockets and took it, trying not to look at the face of the man she was stealing from.

Quickly leaving the room of death behind Arielynn returned to the hallway and activated the holocube. To her dismay all she was able to learn from the cube was the codes to unlock the turbolifts, they would have to find another way to the hanger.

Tossing the small cube aside she looked for a way that she could return to the administration level. If the maps she had seen were correct than there should be a turbolift up somewhere on this level, although it was probably locked down. With no better ideas, the ex-Jedi made her way towards where the turbolifts would be.

A few minutes later she found herself in a mess hall. Like the rest of the level this room had been ransacked thoroughly and there were a few bodies strewn about. Arielynn wondered were the droids that killed them had gone off to. Carefully walking up to the door that lead to the turbolifts Arielynn pushed the panel to open it, and came face-to-chestplate with a large humanoid mining droid.

The droid was much taller than an average human and was wider too. Although roughly human in appearance, one of its arms had been permanently shaped into a mining laser. Arielynn looked up into the droids expressionless red eyes and cursed her foolishness. Someday she was going to learn to listen before opening doors.

The sound of the droid's laser powering up was echoed as three other droids also powered their lasers. Two fire prevention turrets also came online and swiveled to point at her. Arielynn groaned inwardly before the entire room burst into chaos.

Throwing herself backwards to avoid a backhand from the closest droid, she brought up her laser and fired madly into the room. Unfortunately she was unable to get effective aim as she fell and most of her shots went wide. She hit the ground and immediately sprung to her feet. Ducking behind an overturned table she tried to gather her senses. These droids were more advanced than the crawlers and consequently more dangerous.

Standing up and firing off a few shots Arielynn managed to disable the laser arm of one of the mining droids before having to duck again to avoid the freeze ray of a fire prevention turret. Suddenly she was thrown to the side as the droid she hit used its broken laser arm to break through the table she'd been using for cover. Arielynn cursed whoever had decided to make the tables out of cheap materials.

Scrambling away as the other droids fired at her, Arielynn managed to get off a shot that burned through the wounded droids central control cluster. The droid teetered and fell over as she threw herself into a roll, barely avoiding another carbonite ray.

Throwing herself behind another table, Arielynn wracked her brain for options. At this rate she'd be slowly worn down and picked off by those forsaken freeze turrets. Breathing heavily Arielynn tried to concentrate; she tried to feel the Force through her. She had felt it earlier; she was convinced of that now. But try as hard as she could, she just couldn't feel it anymore. Chunks of debris fell all around her as the mining lasers struck the walls nearby, blasting holes into the surface.

Rising to fire another salvo into the approaching droids she wondered if maybe it had all been her imagination. It had seemed too good to be true. And now she was going to die on a barren rock killed by berserk droids, all because she had allowed her shields to be infiltrated by some crazy, old scow.

_Scow? _

Great, she was hearing things again. She was going to die alone _and_ crazy. Life just gets better and better. Firing off another salvo into a mining droid she felt a sense of enjoyment watching the droid fall to the ground, full of smoking holes. Two down.

_You are skeptical. Why?_

"Well maybe it has something to do with how I'm about to die," she screamed as she threw herself to the side as the table finally shattered under the strain of the carbonite freezing and laser blasts.

_You are trying too hard,_ the old woman preached. _Let it flow naturally before you attempt to bind the Force to your will._

"Yeah, well, it's a little hard to concentrate at the moment!" Arielynn retorted before shouting out in pain as a laser burned into her shoulder. She scarcely had enough time to duck behind a pillar as another freeze ray came within millimeters of hitting her. She could feel the goose bumps on her arm as the temperature dropped below freezing.

_You focus too hard on the insignificant. Seek out the true threat and silence it._

That was easy for the old woman to say, she was safely back in the medical wing, away from all the homicidal machines. She did have a point though, those mining lasers hurt but they weren't immediately lethal. The carbonite was. While she tried to destroy the mining droids she was quickly wearing herself down and running out of cover.

Gritting her teeth, Arielynn jumped out from behind the pillar she'd been hiding behind and ran towards the door leading to the turbolifts. The mining droids in front of her raised their lasers and opened fire. Throwing herself into a forward roll Arielynn passed beneath the legs of the mining droids and continued forward, bolting through the door. The carbonite turrets swiveled to fire at her. Throwing herself to the ground Arielynn opened fire. The first turret fell silent as the laser burned through its powercell.

Meanwhile, the freeze ray from the second turret passed over her prone form and struck one of the remaining mining droids in the back, the massive temperature change disrupting the droids circuits and forcing it to shut down. As the turret swiveled to adjust for her new position Arielynn brought her rifle around, pointed it at the droid and fired. The laser burned through the barrel of the turret moments before it attempted to fire its freeze ray. The turret was blown apart as the carbonite solidified inside the barrel and expanded.

With the turrets now disabled Arielynn was able to dispatch the last droid easily. A shot to the arm destroyed it's method of attacking and another to the central motivator disabled it permanently.

The room fell silent as the final droid fell to the floor. Looking around Arielynn saw the bodies of three dead miners lying on the floor. She recognized one of them as Coorta, the miner who had been intent on handing her over to the exchange. Seemed he had fallen victim to his own ploy.

In the corner of the room was the terminal that controlled the turbolifts. Watching the holorecording she learned that Coorta and his friends had been communicating with the maintenance officer in regards to taking her off the facility. Unfortunately for them it seemed that the protocol droid had been impersonating the maintenance officer and betrayed them, ordering the droids to kill the miners. Shaking her head sadly, Arielynn entered the code to unlock the turbolifts.

The turbolift reached the administration level quickly. As the lift came to a stop the heavy blast doors opened to reveal Kreia behind them.

The old woman had changed out of the medical gown she'd worn when Arielynn had met her and was now dressed in a simple brown cloak. The hood was pulled over her head to hide the top of her face. All in all the woman looked like what someone would expect an old Jedi woman to look like.

"I have felt a disturbance," she remarked as Arielynn exited the lift. "Our enemy is here. We must leave immediately."

"Would this enemy have anything to do with that Republic warship?" the ex-Jedi asked, recalling the unsettling feeling she'd experienced upon looking at the ship.

"So you sensed it as well. I had hoped that you might." The old woman nodded, "Yes, he is the one who fired upon the _Ebon Hawk_ as we attempted to rescue you. And he will not let us go without blood being shed," she proclaimed darkly.

"He sounds like a wonderful guy," Arielynn snorted. "We need to get to Atton."

"If you wish," the old woman stated. "We must make our way to the docking area. I fear the airlock has already opened, and if that is so then the fool may be dead already."

"We need to hurry then." And with that Arielynn turned and ran down the hallway, towards the communications center.

Looking back to see if she had left Kreia behind, Arielynn was surprised to see that the old woman was doing a good job in keeping up with her. The ex-Jedi couldn't believe it; the old woman had to be pushing eighty and she wasn't even breathing heavily as they sprinted through the halls. She hadn't heard of the Force being able to be used so effectively; but then, she had never seen the older Masters really _do_ anything.

Turning the last corner and coming into view of the communications console Arielynn was treated to one of the strangest things she'd ever seen. Atton was perfectly fine it seemed and he was standing over the bodies of three human looking figures. As they approached him, Arielynn thought she saw him drop into a combat stance but he quickly returned to normal when he recognized her.

"Another Jedi?" he asked, eyeing Kreia. "Did you guys suddenly start breeding when I wasn't looking?"

Arielynn didn't have the patience to put up with his stupid jokes right now. "Not now, Atton. What happened here?" she asked pointed to the bodies.

"What? Oh, those?" he remarked, as if he had noticed them. "They appeared when that ship docked. Luckily I was able to find a blaster and hold them off," he explained, holding up a blaster pistol. "I'm guessing that Republic ship isn't carrying friends of yours."

"I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skills piloting a ship," Kreia scoffed. "Otherwise, I feel our time together will be very short indeed."

"Yeah, and I'm also good at running and drinking, your majesty," Atton retorted, glaring at the old woman.

"Okay, okay." Arielynn came in between them. "There's no need to fight amongst ourselves. I think we have enough people who want to kill us without adding each other to the list."

Kreia seemed to back down, "You speak the truth. Come, that ship may be our only way out of this place."

"Well let's get going then," Atton said. "Before something else comes along and tries to slow us down."

The three of them quickly made it to the docking platform and from there they were able to pass over into the Republic ship.

Upon passing through the docking tunnel they were confronted by a virtual ghost ship, there was not a soul to be found.

"Something is wrong," Kreia stated. "I sense no one on board."

Apparently Atton didn't find that very welcoming. "'You sense no one on board'? Sense any assassins like the ones that attacked me?"

"Everyone here is slain," she stated calmly. "Yet there are no signs of battle, no carbon scoring, no blaster fire. This place has been hit by an assassin of a different sort."

"Then what are we doing on this ship?" Atton exclaimed. "You two are supposed to be Jedi? You two are the worst Jedi I've ever met!"

"Well maybe you'd like it back in your cell?" Arielynn replied, icily.

"Maybe I would!" he bit back. "At least I was safe there!"

"We cannot go back to the facility," Kreia intervened. "If the fool is correct and we cannot reach the hanger… be silent, I need some time to think."

Atton looked like he was about ready to explode after Kreia's fool remark so Arielynn intervened before he could reply, "When I saw this ship dock a fuel pipe entered the fuel depot, behind the force field that blocks off the hanger."

"Look, I don't mean to paint a shadow on this, but even if you could reach the ship you came in on, it wouldn't matter," Atton stated.

Arielynn was starting to get fed up with his perpetually negative attitude, "And why is that?"

"You'll need the orbital drift charts to clear the Peragus asteroid field," he answered. "Unless you want to have the shortest flight out of Peragus ever recorded."

"Well wouldn't this ship have the codes? They docked here," she pointed out.

"Of course they have the codes," Atton conceded. "They'd have to. Although they docked almost an hour ago, the codes will be out of date."

"It's better than flying blind. Let's get their codes," Arielynn said. "Then we can worry about reaching the _Ebon Hawk_.

"We'll have to get to the bridge," Atton remarked. "That's the only problem I can see. But I have a bad feeling about this."

"It is a sound plan. For the moment," Kreia remarked, ignoring Atton. "Let us go. Our enemies gather while we wait here."

"I'm sorry Kreia," Arielynn replied.

Kreia nodded towards the ex-Jedi, seemingly approving of her reply. Atton made a gagging face and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'suck up' under his breath. Arielynn shot him a glare and moved past him towards where the bridge was located.

It didn't take them long to pass through the empty hallways and reach the bridge but what they found there was unlike anything they could have expected. They were faced with the rotten smell of decaying flesh as over a dozen bodies lay on the floor of the bridge, all of them dead.

"What happened here?" Atton questioned upon entering the room.

"I should think it obvious," Kreia replied. "The crew has been slain."

As Arielynn knelt down to inspect some of the bodies she heard Atton respond, "Well I know they're dead. I'm asking how? I don't think the droids would have been able to board the ship."

"No droid did this, Atton," Arielynn stated. When he turned to look at her confused she continued. "These bodies have been dead for days, and look," she pointed out a long slash one of the soldiers had taken across the chest. "Each of these bodies only has one wound, a lethal one. Whoever did this is extremely skilled."

Looking over the bodies she was suddenly struck by a thought, there was no blood. Examining the wounds closely she found they had all been cauterized immediately. Only one weapon she knew of did that, "If I didn't know better, I'd say these soldiers were killed by a lightsaber."

Atton groaned loudly. "You have got to be kidding me," he complained. "First crazy droids, then assassins, and now a homicidal Jedi wants to kill us! Can this day get any better!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide as if to beseech the heavens.

"Shut up, fool," Kreia hissed.

Arielynn heard him say something but she didn't pay him any attention. Stepping around the bodies, she made her way towards the front of the bridge where the navicomputer would be located.

They would need a datapad to store the charts on until they reached the _Ebon Hawk_. Turning to the others she said, "Atton, see if you can find a datapad lying around." He nodded in response and began to search the area for a storage compartment that might contain what they needed.

Hoping to learn something about what had befallen the crew of the ship, Arielynn located the central command console and logged into the ship's network.

"That can't be right," she muttered as she read the words that appeared on the screen.

"What have you discovered?" Kreia asked, coming up to stand beside her.

"According to this, we're aboard the _Harbinger_," she answered. "But that ship was crippled, it couldn't have made it this far."

"Do not be so easy to dismiss that which you do not understand," Kreia replied mysteriously.

Arielynn turned to face the old woman. "Are you saying that this ship just floated here through hyperspace?"

Kreia regarded the younger woman silently before replying, her voice filled with both hope and disappointment. "The Force is capable of more than throwing pebbles around."

"Are you saying that a Jedi dragged this entire ship into hyperspace, located Peragus, maneuvered through an explosive asteroid field, and docked with the mining facility?" Arielynn asked in response.

"No. Not a Jedi," Kreia muttered.

"Then what?"

The old woman didn't answer; instead she turned away and began inspecting some of the bodies lying around. Seeing that she wouldn't be getting an answer Arielynn looked back to the computer and began to browse through the ships logs.

This ship had been sent to retrieve cargo and some passengers from the Atrivis Sector. This however was a cover up. It seemed that their main mission the entire time was to pick her up on the planet Atrisia and transport her to Telos. Arielynn was somewhat off-put by that, what could the Republic want her for so badly that they would commission a warship to go and pick her up?

Unfortunately the _Harbinger_ never made it to Telos. When they came out of hyperspace near the Turak system to readjust for the jump to Telos they were hailed by a distress signal from an unknown freighter, which Arielynn supposed was the _Ebon Hawk_. Apparently the _Hawk_ had been attacked by a Sith warship and was requesting aid. After thorough scans of both the Sith ship and the _Hawk_ revealed no life forms the _Harbinger_ tractored over the freighter, brought over the only body they found on the Sith warship, and continued towards Telos.

The ship began experiencing a series of system failures, throwing them out of hyperspace and disabling their communications so that they couldn't call for help. Then crew members began to go missing and no one could figure out were they went. The captain also remarked that he had seen the Jedi for days. Arielynn realized that she had probably already been locked in the _Harbinger_'s cargo hold by this point.

The last of the logs showed the captain talking about the bizarre occurrences aboard the ship. He began to say something about repairing the _Ebon Hawk_ to transport the Jedi the rest of the way but was interrupted by an emergency call from the medical bay. The medical officer screamed something about 'him' being alive but she was cut off by the sound of glass shattering. The comm went silent for a moment, but when it came back on it wasn't the voice of the medical officer. Instead a deep, gravely male voice sounded, "I have come for the Jedi."

The captain ordered a security team to the med bay just before the log ended in static. Looking around at the bodies on the floor it wasn't hard to determine what had followed. Done with the console Arielynn looked around for Atton, she was eager to get those charts and get the hell out of there.

The card shark was leaning up against an array of consoles on the other side of the bridge, looking somewhat bored. When she waved to get his attention he looked up and showed a datapad that he was holding in his hand.

"You looked pretty busy with those logs so I already downloaded the charts," he stated. "We need to get going. The longer we wait the more out-of-date these charts are going to be."

Arielynn nodded. "Alright then, let's see if we can make it down to the engine deck. From there we can cross over to the mining facility."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Whoever killed these soldiers could be waiting down there," Atton pointed out.

"We have no choice. If we wait here, he'll just come and find us anyways," Arielynn replied, taking a blaster rifle off of on of the dead bodies. Examining the blaster to ensure functionality she powered the weapon up and nodded towards the others, indicating that they were leaving.

As they moved through the empty corridors Arielynn couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Several times she thought that she had caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye but when she tried to focus on it all that she could see were empty hallways. By the time they had reached the crew quarters she was absolutely sure that something was following them.

Slowing down enough to walk beside Atton, she quietly muttered, "Something's following us."

"I know," he replied calmly. "They have been since the bridge."

Arielynn was surprised at both his alertness and the calmness he seemed to be taking the situation with. "What do you think we should do about it?" she whispered.

"They're using personal cloaking devices," he replied quietly. "That's how they snuck up on me earlier."

"So we let them make the first move?"

"Unless you fancy shooting blindly into thin air and risking bringing down what's left of this ship down onto our heads," he replied. Arielynn was shocked at the logic he used, she hadn't figured him for anything more than a skirt chaser and a card hustler.

Atton must have noticed her surprise because he shot her a look of mock indignation, "Oh, don't look so shocked. You don't survive on the Rim as long as I have without learning a few things."

She nodded but then noticed something and came to a stop in front of one of the doors.

"What is wrong? Why have you stopped?" Kreia inquired.

"This was my room," Arielynn replied. "Do you mind if I grab some things?" she asked the others. She knew they didn't really have the time, but everything she owned had been left on this ship when she had been smuggled onto the _Ebon Hawk_.

"Do what you must," Kreia answered, "but be quick about it."

Nodding her thanks Arielynn opened the door to the room and quickly went about gathering what few belongings she could carry. Shoving what few credits she found into her pocket, the ex-Jedi opened her traveling bag and withdrew the only thing it contained that she would miss. The armband didn't look like anything special upon first glance, being nothing more than a copper band that had been bent to form a circle. But to her, it held a great deal more value.

It had been given to her years before the Mandalorian Wars, when she had been a teenager growing up at the Dantooine academy. A good friend of hers had made it for her to cheer her up when she had learned that he would be leaving the academy to travel with his Master. He had placed it on her arm and claimed that so long as she wore the armband he would return some day, as a Jedi Knight.

She laughed at the absurdity now, but as a young girl of 14 she had been deeply touched. Ever since then she had always worn the armband, even after her friend's return and the subsequent Mandalorian Crusade.

Rolling up her sleeve Arielynn placed the armband on its usual spot on her upper arm. Smiling slightly at the memories it represented she stood to leave. Her reverie was interrupted by the sounds of blaster fire from the hallway. Alarmed she grabbed the blaster rifle and ran back to the hallway.

Atton was busy trying to fend off three attackers wielding electrostaffs while protecting Kreia. He was faring fairly well, although due to the close quarters he was having a hard time getting a good shot off. Every time he brought up his blaster pistol to fire one of the attackers would either knock his hand away or bring the electricity producing end of the staff down towards him forcing him to ruin the shot in order to avoid injury.

Kreia herself had found a blaster from somewhere and was firing at the assassins further away.

Arielynn brought up her rifle to shoot at the assassins attacking Atton but it was destroyed as an electrostaff came down on the weapon. Dropping the useless, sparking weapon the ex-Jedi turned to face her assailant. It appeared to be a human, although its features were concealed by black clothing so it was hard to tell. The creature regarded her through large expressionless red visors.

Acting on her hesitation the assassin struck forward with his staff, aiming to jab her in the gut. Acting on pure instinct Arielynn sidestepped the attack, and as the assassin stumbled forward upon meeting no resistance she brought up her leg and drove her knee into the assassin's chest. The assassin dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Senses flaring Arielynn whirled to block a downwards attack by another assassin with her forearm. Grasping the shaft of the staff, the ex-Jedi wrenched the weapon out of her surprised opponent's hands and brought it around in a vicious backhand that shattered the red visors of his mask and almost tore his head from his shoulders. The assassin dropped.

Turning, electrostaff in hand, Arielynn threw herself at the trio of assassins attacking Atton. Before they had even registered what had happened Arielynn had activated the electric tip of the staff and driven it into the side of one of the assassins. The figure shook violently as thousands of volts poured into his body and then fell to the ground. The other two reacted quickly, lashing out at Arielynn.

She backpedaled, blocking the aggressive attacks with her own staff. The two assassins fought well and Arielynn was unable to counterattack as they continued to batter her with quick attacks, attempting to wear the ex-Jedi down before moving in for the kill.

The left attacker came down with a powerful attack to her head and she was forced to bring up her own staff to block the attack, leaving her flank wide open to the other attacker. The attack never came though. When the right assassin brought his staff back to lash forward there was the distinct sound of blasters and the assassin toppled over, smoking from his back. The other assassin was momentarily stunned by the surprise death of his comrade and that was all the time Arielynn needed. Pushing her foe's weapon up forcefully she caused him to lose balance and then she brought her staff around into a painful jab to the gut and activated the electricity producing tip.

Arielynn turned to Atton and nodded her thanks which he brushed off with a casual wave of the hand and a cocky grin. The grin was quickly replaced by a look of horror. She heard a familiar snap-hiss from behind her and her blood froze. She heard Atton shout out as she turned just enough to see the red blade arcing towards her neck. Dreadfully she noticed that there was no time to bring her weapon up to block, for all the help it would have been against a lightsaber.

The air above her exploded with sparks as she felt herself roughly pulled backwards, falling to the floor. The blade had flown over her head and had struck against the wall, creating a long gash that pierced the power cord for the area. The lights went black but Arielynn was still able to make out the Jedi from the glow that his weapon produced.

The figure that loomed over her was the stuff of nightmares. He was large and powerfully built; or at least he had been at one point. The man looked like he had been ripped apart from the inside out and then put back together, with entire chunks of skin and flesh missing. Dead looking cracked and broken skin covered his shirtless chest, and one of his arms wore a long black glove that stretched up to his shoulder. His face was brutally scarred and entire chucks looked like they had been ripped away, revealing the muscle and bone beneath it. One of his eyes looked like it had been blinded and the other looked down at her with such hatred and pain that Arielynn thought she might wither underneath his gaze.

He pulled his lightsaber from the wall and pointed it at her, the red glow it produced making the monster look even more frightening than he already did.

"You will die, Jedi," the man spoke, voice deep and raspy as if his throat had been partially destroyed, which it probably had.

Before the dark Jedi could attack again, she had been forcefully pulled to her feet by Atton. "I think it's time to leave," he said as he literally pulled her down the hallway, away from the lightsaber wielding figure.

Recovering from the shock Arielynn shook her arm out of Atton's grasp and ran up beside him. Looking back over her shoulder she saw Kreia running just behind her. She also saw the Jedi sprinting after them, approaching rapidly.

"He's catching up," she stated, breathing heavily.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Atton replied. "You're the Jedi."

"I told you before, I'm not a Jedi."

"Well he seems to think otherwise," Atton remarked, jerking a thumb backwards.

Arielynn had a sudden sense of alarm and grabbed Atton, yanking him to the side just before the dark Jedi lunged down with an attack that would have split the scoundrel in half. Not stopping to give the attacker the chance to correct his mistake they continued down the halls, directly into a dead end. The door there had been shut during the deterioration of the _Harbinger_'s systems and there was no way to open it.

The dark Jedi, seeing that his prey had no way to escape, stopped running. Instead he slowly walked towards the trio, confident in his victory. Arielynn brought up her electrostaff in a defensive stance, determined not to die easily but she was pushed aside by Kreia.

"What?" she began confused.

"You are not to die here," the old woman stated simply. Turning to the locked door Kreia raised her hand and the door buckled inwards and exploded open, the metal composing it ripping apart.

Arielynn regarded the woman with surprise; Kreia was stronger than she had thought. The dark Jedi also seemed to notice what had occurred, as he stopped his approach and questioned, "Who?"

When Kreia turned to face him the dark Jedi briefly appeared surprised but that was quickly replaced by rage and hatred, "You!"

Kreia didn't reply, instead she sent the man crashing against the wall. While he was momentarily stunned, she caused the wall plating and cables in the wall to wrap tightly around the Dark Jedi. As he struggled to free himself from the cocoon of metal Kreia turned to face Arielynn.

"Come, that will not stop him for long."

Arielynn wanted to ask the old woman many things, but as the dark Jedi began using his lightsaber to burn through the wires and metal she realized that they didn't have the time. Nodding, she turned and ran through the now open door, towards the turbolifts that would lead to the engine deck and the fuel pipe.

Punching the access panel, Arielynn prayed that it would operate under emergency power. She sighed with relief as the door opened and she quickly gestured for the others to enter. Taking one last look back down the hallway to watch the Jedi free himself from the cables, Arielynn ducked into the turbolift and punched the down panel.

They reached the bottom of the shaft and exited the turbolift into the engine room. The main power had been cut but the emergency back-up lights showered the area in a dull red glow.

"We need to keep moving," she said, "He'll be following soon."

Atton took his blaster and shot the control panel for the turbolift. "Not anymore he's not."

"You are a fool if you believe that will stop him," Kreia remarked. Arielynn noticed that the older woman had become somewhat withdrawn since the appearance of the Jedi, not saying much or offering her opinion. She made a note to ask her of their attacker when they were safe.

"It's a fifty foot drop down that shaft; no one could survive that." His argument was interrupted by the sound of something landing heavily on the top of the turbolift box. Seconds later a red blade began cutting through the roof of the box.

Wasting no time, the three of them bolted away from the turbolift, heading towards where the fuel pipe would be. As they passed through a large archway, Kreia stopped. Arielynn turned around and ran back the old woman.

"Kreia? What's wrong, are you injured?" she asked approaching the old woman.

"Go. I will hold him off," the old woman replied, staring at the broken man as he jumped down through the roof of the turbolift.

"You can't be serious! He'll kill you!" she exclaimed trying to pull the old woman away with her. However, Kreia was unmovable. Arielynn felt herself get thrown back as the old woman used to Force to push her back like a feather. Landing through the archway Arielynn got to her feet just as the large blast doors slammed shut, blocking her off from the old woman.

_He cannot kill what he cannot see, and his power blinded him long ago._ Kreia's voice rang in her head. _Run, I shall be along shortly._

Rushing forward Arielynn pounded on the door, trying to force it open through force of will. But the heavy durasteel stayed put. Arielynn felt Atton's hand grab her shoulder.

"Come on, we need to get out of here," he said calmly. "There's nothing we can do, she made her choice. I doubt we'll never see her again, I'm not that lucky."

Arielynn nodded grimly, and the two of them ran back towards the fuel pipe. Arielynn only hoped that the old woman would be able to escape by herself. Upon reaching the maintenance door to the engine rooms they found that it was sealed tightly. Cursing loudly Arielynn looked around for a terminal she could hack into and force the doors to open.

"Relax," Atton said as he knelt down to pry open the panel on the wall beside the door and began to fiddle around with the wires.

For several painful moments Arielynn stood guard over the card shark as he worked, her hands gripping the shaft of her electrostaff tightly; watching the hallway as if she expected a rancor to lumber around the corner any moment. Finally the door slid open and Atton stood up.

"Pure Pazaak," he remarked with a lopsided grin.

Moving quickly they pressed further into the ship's belly, passing the massive ion engines. Soon they stood in front of the door that the maintenance crews used if the fuel tanks required repairs.

"We're not seriously going to cross back into the facility through the fuel lines, are we?" Atton questioned. When Arielynn nodded he groaned loudly, "This is crazy!"

"The alternative is to go back and say hello to Mr. Scar Tissue." Atton made a sour face but he didn't move. Arielynn looked him in the eyes, "Atton, you have to trust me."

Atton stared at her for a few moments, and eventually nodded, "Alright fine. Let's go." Was he blushing?

Deciding it was just a trick of the light; she turned and began to cross the wire scaffolding leading to the fuel line when her left hand exploded in pain. Falling to her knees she let out a scream of anguish and clutched her hand tightly.

She heard Atton shout out but she wasn't paying attention to him. She was suddenly struck by the image of herself lying on the ground as the scarred dark Jedi stood over her, lightsaber blazing. Her left hand lay close by, fingers still tightly wrapped around her own lightsaber.

She was brought out of the vision swiftly as Atton slapped her across the face. Looking up at him through the tears of pain she saw genuine concern etched on his face. "What happened to you?" he asked.

"Kreia," she managed to stammer. "I think Kreia's been injured."

"How do you know that?" he questioned, helping her to her feet shakily.

"I….I don't know. I just do," she answered, trying to clear her head. Her hand still hurt but it had reduced to a low throb instead of blinding pain.

"Well we better get out of here before Sleeps-with-Vibroknives decides to make us next. Can you walk?" he asked, helping her find her balance.

She nodded. "I'll be fine. Let's go."

They pried open the access hatch into the fuel lines and passed over into the Peragus Mining facility. Kicking open the hatch at the other end, the two found themselves in the Peragus fuel depot. Checking to make sure the coast clear, Arielynn waved for Atton to follow her and headed towards the ramp that lead up to the walkway where they could reach the hanger from. They met no opposition as they climbed the ramp and walked onto the walkway.

As she began to make her way towards the hanger, Arielynn noticed something. A small utility droid had been left beside a console. Ignoring Attons protests she walked over to the droid. It was a small T3 unit, recognizable by the flat cylindrical head. He appeared to be in reasonably good condition, except that he was shut down. Powering him up she jumped back as the droid let out a loud squeal and tried to shock her. Atton brought up his blaster to scrap the droid but she pushed his weapon down.

The droid seemed to realize something and let out a long series of beeps. Arielynn recognized the droid as the same one she had sent to look for an override switch.

"Yeah, I met the 'protocol' droid," Arielynn responded. "He was a wonderful machine."

The droid fired off another high pitched beep.

"Don't blame yourself, T3," Arielynn said, patting the little droid on his head. "If it hadn't been for you I wouldn't have made it off the administration level. Let's get going"

The droid warbled happily.

Arielynn turned and headed for the hanger, smirking at the look of surprised disgust on Atton's face. She had to force herself not to laugh as T3 made a raspberry sound as he passed Atton.

They reached the hanger without any incident. Upon entering the hanger control room Atton ran over to the door that linked to the hanger bay where the _Ebon Hawk_ sat and cursed in some alien language.

"It's locked," he remarked bitterly. "This is ridiculous. We can see the ship from here but we can't get to it!" he exclaimed gesturing towards the large viewport that overlooked the hanger bay. Indeed, the _Ebon Hawk_ was clearly visible from the control room.

T3 let out a series of short chirps and beeps.

Atton regarded the droid coldly, "What is that little trash compactor talking about?"

Arielynn was angered by his cold treatment of the droid but answered him, "He says that he can bypass the security and open the door from the console."

Atton looked at her in amazement, "How do you understand that noise?"

"I worked with a lot of utility droids a long time ago," she replied.

Atton shrugged his shoulders, "Well it's just noise to me. But if he says he can open the door, don't let me stop him."

T3 rolled towards the control console and inserted his interfacing arm into the computer port. In a few moments the droid let out a successful chirp and the door opened.

Rolling back towards the two humans the little droid chirped happily.

Arielynn patted him on his head. "Good job, T3."

Atton rolled his eyes, "Whatever, let's just get the hell out of here." And he stomped towards the door.

Arielynn knelt down beside the droid. "Don't let him get to you," she whispered. "He's just a scruffy murglak." The droid let out a series of amused beeps.

They quickly made it through the hallway and were running through the large hanger bay towards the _Ebon Hawk_ when all hell broke loose. Dozens of humans in silver-metalic armor began to break through the viewports high up on the walls of the hanger and rappel down into the hanger, firing at them.

"Sith!" Atton screamed. "They must've come with that Jedi. Get to the ship!"

Running up the boarding ramp closely behind Atton heard him yell out "Get to the turbolasers and hold them off!" as he ran towards the cockpit. Racing towards the gun mounts she could barely believe it when she saw the familiar shape of the HK-50 protocol droid standing in her way.

The droid raised a blaster at her. "Statement: You have proven to be most troublesome, Je-"

Arielynn didn't have time to listen to the crazy droid so she activated her electrostaff as she ran and drove it into the droid's side, overloading all of its internal circuits and forcing it to shut down. As the droid fell silently to the floor she continued past him and leapt down the tunnel into the chair of the turbolasers, swinging them around to point towards the incoming threat.

The Sith, as Atton had called them, had reached the floor of the hanger and were rushing towards the open loading ramp of the _Ebon Hawk_. Arielynn didn't waste any time in opening fire, the powerful turbolaser ripping through the soldiers' armor like paper, tearing their bodies apart. Arielynn didn't let her mind dwell on those morbid thoughts as she swiveled the chair to mow down the approaching soldiers. A few of them tried to hide behind crates and cargo canisters but the turbolaser just punched right through the obstacles.

There were a lot of them however and Arielynn was finding it hard to keep track of them all, "Will you close that blasted ramp!" she screamed towards the cockpit as she shot one troopers head clean off his body. "We're going to be boarded at this rate!"

All of a sudden the remainder of the facilities mining droids burst into the hanger, no doubt drawn by all the noise. In an unlikely turn of events, many of the droids began attacking the Sith soldiers, their modified programming not distinguishing between organic life forms. Blasting away the few droids that did approach the Ebon Hawk Arielynn continued to fire at the human soldiers, who were now busy trying to fight off an army of angry droids.

The _Hawk_'s engines finally warmed up and Atton took her out into the asteroid field, away from the facility. Arielynn allowed herself a sigh of relief and pulled herself out of the gunner's seat and headed towards the cockpit.

When she arrived there she found Atton casually adjusting the controls as the ship flew through the asteroid field, avoiding any new obstacles that had appeared since the drift charts had been taken.

"Seems we're out of that mess," she remarked as she entered the cockpit.

"I would not be so sure," came a tired voice from a seat behind the copilot's chair.

"Kreia? You're alive!" Arielynn exclaimed happily, coming up beside the old woman. When she got a look at her though she gasped in shock, "Kreia, what happened to your hand?" Kreia's hand had been severed just above the wrist; the wound was obviously from a lightsaber.

"There is no time," the old woman replied.

"What are you talking abo-" Atton was cut off as the entire ship shuddered.

Arielynn barely remained standing and pulled herself towards the copilot seat, strapping herself in. "What happened?" she demanded.

"Something just hit our deflector shields," Atton replied grabbing the controls and steering the ship out of the path of a large asteroid.

The ship shuddered again. Arielynn read over the displays in front of her. "Shields are down to fifty percent."

"Switch all power to rear shields, and try to figure out what's hitting us," Atton directed.

Arielynn did so and brought up the sensors, "The _Harbinger_! It's firing at us!"

"What! That Jedi is going to turn this whole field nova!" Atton exclaimed, as the _Hawk_ shuddered as another shot struck them.

"Atton, we can't take many more of those, you'd better start flying better!" Arielynn yelled.

He said something in a language she didn't understand but was sure was an insult. Regardless he did begin flying better, performing an impressive series of maneuvers that took them around multiple asteroids, dodging and weaving quickly through the field. The _Harbinger_ still fired upon them though, turbolasers striking many asteroids, sending chunks of rock spinning through space. Arielynn considered it a small miracle that the they didn't blow up completely; those asteroids must've had a low amount of Peragian fuel in them.

"This is bad," Atton ranted. "Either he hits us and we're dead, or he doesn't hit us and we're dead. Those are great odds."

"Just keep avoiding the shots and fly for the edge of the asteroid field. Hopefully we'll make it out and get to hyperspace before this field's destroyed. If we're gone he should stop firing," Arielynn shouted, trying to convert more power to the shields.

"I'll try. You get the hyperdrive ready to go, we're gonna have to go to lightspeed as soon as we clear the field."

Arielynn complied and began entering the only coordinates they had into the hyperdrive, seems that she'd be getting to Telos after all. To bad the captain would never know that he had completed his mission.

"The asteroids can be destroyed by us as well as them, can they not?" Kreia stated from behind them. "We could fire upon them to distract the enemy."

Arielynn shook her head, "That's just as likely to kill us, and the facility will definitely be destroyed that way. Half the galaxy relies on Peragus for fuel."

The _Ebon Hawk_ shook as it was struck by another shot as Atton avoided an asteroid.

"Shields are down! Another hit and we're spaceslug food," Arielynn shouted.

"We're almost out of the field! I just need another few seconds!" Atton exclaimed twisting the ship out of the path of a very large asteroid.

Fortunately for them his maneuver also saved them from being hit by another shot from the _Harbinger_. Unfortunately, the shot then struck the asteroid they had avoided. Time seemed to slow down for Arielynn as the asteroid began to blow apart, causing a huge explosion that engulfed several smaller asteroids. This began a vicious chain reaction that soon began to carry through the entire field.

"Kriffing Sith!" Atton cursed as he maneuvered erratically to avoid the explosions as asteroids went off all around them. They were only meters from the edge.

Bursting out of the field, Arielynn punched the hyperdrive just as the entire asteroid field went nova. The orange blaze faded into the bright blue of hyperspace, and the _Ebon Hawk_ was gone.


End file.
